title: Dahonggou Creek virus, a divergent lineage of hantavirus harbored by the long-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fusicaudus).
abstract: Novel hantaviruses, recently detected in moles (order Eulipotyphla, family Talpidae) from Europe, Asia, and North America would predict a broader host range and wider ecological diversity. Employing RT-PCR, archival frozen tissues from the Chinese shrew mole (Uropsilus soricipes), broad-footed mole (Scapanus latimanus), coast mole (Scapanus orarius), Townsend's mole (Scapanus townsendii), and long-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fusicaudus) were analyzed for hantavirus RNA. Following multiple attempts, a previously unrecognized hantavirus, designated Dahonggou Creek virus (DHCV), was detected in a long-tailed mole, captured in Shimian County, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China, in August 1989. Analyses of a 1058-nucleotide region of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase-encoding L segment indicated that DHCV was genetically distinct from other rodent-, shrew-, mole-, and bat-borne hantaviruses. Phylogenetic trees, using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods, showed that DHCV represented a divergent lineage comprising crocidurine and myosoricine shrew-borne hantaviruses. Although efforts to obtain the S- and M-genomic segments failed, the L-segment sequence analysis, reported here, expands the genetic database of non-rodent-borne hantaviruses. Also, by further mining natural history collections of archival specimens, the genetic diversity of hantaviruses will elucidate their evolutionary origins.
authors.affiliation: Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, Departments of Pediatrics and Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI USA.
authors.forename: Hae Ji
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, Departments of Pediatrics and Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI USA.
authors.forename: Se Hun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Museum of Southwestern Biology, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM USA.
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, Departments of Pediatrics and Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagihara
keywords: Evolution; Hantavirus; Talpid