title: Louping ill virus (LIV) in the Far East.
abstract: This study focused on finding, culturing, and identifying the biological and genetic characteristics of three louping ill virus (LIV) strains in the south of the Russian Far East. The Primorye-155-77 and Primorye-20-79 virus strains were isolated from Ixodes persulcatus ticks, and the Primorye-185-91 strain was isolated from the blood of a person after a tick bite. According to the hemagglutination and neutralization tests, Primorye-155-77, Primorye-20-79 and Primorye-185-91 had weak reactivity with antibodies in an antiserum against tick-borne encephalitis virus. In Primorye-155-77 and Primorye-20-79, the sequences of the 5' ends of the 2456-nucleotide-long viral RNA including the 5' untranslated region (UTR) and genes of the capsid protein, prM protein and envelope E protein were determined. The complete genome sequence of Primorye-185-91 was determined. The E protein gene of the Negishi strain differed from those of three analyzed strains, as there were mutations resulting in the replacement of three amino acids: Ala163Thr, Asp193Asn and Ala313Thr. The homology of Primorye-185-91 to LIV 369/T2 was 97.57 %, and to the Penrith strain, it was 98.36 %. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Primorye-155-77, Primorye-20-79 and Primorye-185-91 are related to LI/A and LI/K strains isolated in England and Scotland and to the Negishi strain; these strains have a common progenitor. Negishi-like strains were represented by one subtype of louping ill virus, i.e. the British subtype (LIV-Brit). The possibility is discussed of a single introduction of the virus to the Far Eastern region (Japan and Primorsky Krai) from a single natural locus more than 50 years ago.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Selskaya str., 1, Vladivostok, 690087, Russian Federation, galinaleon41@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Galina N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Leonova
authors.forename: Ilya G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Kondratov
authors.forename: Olga S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Maystrovskaya
authors.forename: Ikuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Takashima
authors.forename: Sergei I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Belikov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000821:virology*; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D016679:Genome, Viral; D018884:Ixodes / Q000821:virology*; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D012426:Russia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins