[Detection of the Siberian Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwestern China].
Until the recent emergence/re-emergence of human-pathogenic viruses in ticks, tick-borne viruses have been neglected as causative agents of human disease (particularly in China). To gain insight into the diversity of tick-borne viruses in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (northwestern China), we conducted illumina deep sequencing-based screening for virus-derived small RNAs in field-collected Ixodes persulcatus ticks. We found 32, 631 unique virus-matched reads. In particular, 77 reads mapped to the tick-borne group within the genus of Flavivirus, and covered 3.8%-2.4% viral genomes. In addition, 32 unique reads were specific to the Siberian subtype of tick-borne encephalitis viruses (TBEV-Sib) which have never been reported in Chinese TBE loci. We confirmed the potential existence of TBEV-Sib by amplification (using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) of genomic fragments from the envelope gene or 3' genomic terminus from the pools of examined ticks. Both sequences demonstrated high homology to TBEV-Sib strains attached geographically to southern Siberia with nucleotide identity of 97.2%-95.5% and aminoacid identity of 99.4%-98.3%, respectively. In conclusion, we report, for the first time, detection of TBEV-Sib in the natural TBE loci of China. These novel data may provide genetic information for further isolation and epidemiologic investigation of TBEV-Sib.
Ran
R
Liu
Guilin
G
Zhang
Xiaoming
X
Liu
Yuchang
Y
Li
Zhong
Z
Zheng
Xiang
X
Sun
Yinhui
Y
Yang
D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors / Q000821:virology*; D002681:China; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D018884:Ixodes / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny