title: A newly discovered flavivirus in the yellow fever virus group displays restricted replication in vertebrates.
abstract: A novel flavivirus, provisionally named Bamaga virus (BgV), was isolated fromCulex annulirostrismosquitoes collected from northern Australia. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete nucleotide sequence of the BgV genome revealed it clustered with the yellow fever virus (YFV) group, and was most closely related to Edge Hill virus (EHV), another Australian flavivirus, with 61.9 % nucleotide and 63.7 % amino acid sequence identity. Antigenic analysis of the envelope and pre-membrane proteins of BgV further revealed epitopes common to EHV, dengue and other mosquito-borne flaviviruses. However, in contrast to these viruses, BgV displayed restricted growth in a range of vertebrate cell lines with no or relatively slow replication in inoculated cultures. There was also restricted BgV replication in virus-challenged mice. Our results indicate that BgV is an evolutionary divergent member of the YFV group of flaviviruses, and represents a novel system to study mechanisms of virus host-restriction and transmission.
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Agathe M G
authors.initials: AMG
authors.lastname: Colmant
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Helle
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bielefeldt-Ohmann
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hobson-Peters
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Willy W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Suen
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Caitlin A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: Public Health Virology, Forensic and Scientific Services, Department of Health, Queensland Government, PO Box 594, Archerfield, Queensland 4108, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: van den Hurk
authors.affiliation: Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Roy A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hall