Proposed update to the taxonomy of the genera Hepacivirus and Pegivirus within the Flaviviridae family.
Proposals are described for the assignment of recently reported viruses, infecting rodents, bats and other mammalian species, to new species within the Hepacivirus and Pegivirus genera (family Flaviviridae). Assignments into 14 Hepacivirus species (Hepacivirus A-N) and 11 Pegivirus species (Pegivirus A-K) are based on phylogenetic relationships and sequence distances between conserved regions extracted from complete coding sequences for members of each proposed taxon. We propose that the species Hepatitis C virus is renamed Hepacivirus C in order to acknowledge its unique historical position and so as to minimize confusion. Despite the newly documented genetic diversity of hepaciviruses and pegiviruses, members of these genera remain phylogenetically distinct, and differ in hepatotropism and the possession of a basic core protein; pegiviruses in general lack these features. However, other characteristics that were originally used to support their division into separate genera are no longer definitive; there is overlap between the two genera in the type of internal ribosomal entry site and the presence of miR-122 sites in the 5' UTR, the predicted number of N-linked glycosylation sites in the envelope E1 and E2 proteins, the presence of poly U tracts in the 3' UTR and the propensity of viruses to establish a persistent infection. While all classified hepaciviruses and pegiviruses have mammalian hosts, the recent description of a hepaci-/pegi-like virus from a shark and the likely existence of further homologues in other non-mammalian species indicate that further species or genera remain to be defined in the future.
Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Donald B
DB
Smith
Institute of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany.
Paul
P
Becher
Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Research Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.|Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jens
J
Bukh
EHESP French School of Public Health, French Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Aix Marseille Université, EPV UMR_D 190 Emergence des Pathologies Virales, Marseille, France.
Ernest A
EA
Gould
Institut für Immunologie, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.
Gregor
G
Meyers
Hookipa Biotech AG, Vienna, Austria.|PaxVax Inc., Menlo Park and Redwood City, CA, USA.
Thomas
T
Monath
Abbott Diagnostics Research and Development, Abbott Park, IL, USA.
A Scott
AS
Muerhoff
Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA.
Alexander
A
Pletnev
Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Rebecca
R
Rico-Hesse
Medical Service, Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, IA, USA.|Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.|Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Jack T
JT
Stapleton
Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.|Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Peter
P
Simmonds
D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018178:Flaviviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012377:Rodentia / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
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