Giuseppe
Emeritus
Molecular phylogeny of a newfound hantavirus in the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides) ? PNAS
Molecular phylogeny of a newfound hantavirus in the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides)
1. Satoru Arai*, 2. Satoshi D. Ohdachi?, 3. Mitsuhiko Asakawa?, 4. Hae Ji Kang?, 5. Gabor Mocz?, 6. Jiro Arikawa‖, 7. Nobuhiko Okabe*, and 8. Richard Yanagihara?,**
Author Affiliations
1. *Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan;
2. ?Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan;
3. ?School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, Ebetsu 069-8501, Japan;
4. ?John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813;
5. ?Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and
6. ‖Institute for Animal Experimentation, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan
1. Communicated by Ralph M. Garruto, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, September 10, 2008 (received for review August 8, 2008)
Abstract
Recent molecular evidence of genetically distinct hantaviruses in shrews, captured in widely separated geographical regions, corroborates decades-old reports of hantavirus antigens in shrew tissues.
Apart from challenging the conventional view that rodents are the principal reservoir hosts, the recently identified soricid-borne hantaviruses raise the possibility that other soricomorphs, notably talpids, similarly harbor hantaviruses.
In analyzing RNA extracts from lung tissues of the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides), captured in Japan between February and April 2008, a hantavirus genome, designated Asama virus (ASAV), was detected by RT-PCR.
Pairwise alignment and comparison of the S-, M-, and L-segment nucleotide and amino acid sequences indicated that ASAV was genetically more similar to hantaviruses harbored by shrews than by rodents.
However, the predicted secondary structure of the ASAV nucleocapsid protein was similar to that of rodent- and shrew-borne hantaviruses, exhibiting the same coiled-coil helix at the amino terminus.
Phylogenetic analyses, using the maximum-likelihood method and other algorithms, consistently placed ASAV with recently identified soricine shrew-borne hantaviruses, suggesting a possible host-switching event in the distant past.
The discovery of a mole-borne hantavirus enlarges our concepts about the complex evolutionary history of hantaviruses.
* host switching
* talpid
* evolution
* Japan
Footnotes
* **To whom correspondence should be addressed at: John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 651 Ilalo Street, BSB 320L, Honolulu, HI 96813. E-mail: yanagiha@pbrc.hawaii.edu
* Author contributions: S.A. and R.Y. designed research; S.A., S.D.O., M.A., J.A., N.O., and R.Y. performed research; S.A. and H.J.K. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.A., S.D.O., H.J.K., G.M., and R.Y. analyzed data; and S.A., G.M., J.A., and R.Y. wrote the paper.
* The authors declare no conflict of interest.
* Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database [accession numbers: ASAV S segment (EU929070, EU929071, EU929072); ASAV M segment (EU929073, EU929074, EU929075); and ASAV L segment (EU929076, EU929077, EU929078].
* Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
* ? 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
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<cite cite="http://www.pnas.org/content/105/42/16296.short?rss=1">Molecular phylogeny of a newfound hantavirus in the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides) ? PNAS</cite>1. Satoru Arai*, 2. Satoshi D. Ohdachi?, 3. Mitsuhiko Asakawa?, 4. Hae Ji Kang?, 5. Gabor Mocz?, 6. Jiro Arikawa‖, 7. Nobuhiko Okabe*, and 8. Richard Yanagihara?,**
Author Affiliations
1. *Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan;
2. ?Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan;
3. ?School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, Ebetsu 069-8501, Japan;
4. ?John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813;
5. ?Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and
6. ‖Institute for Animal Experimentation, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan
1. Communicated by Ralph M. Garruto, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, September 10, 2008 (received for review August 8, 2008)
Abstract
Recent molecular evidence of genetically distinct hantaviruses in shrews, captured in widely separated geographical regions, corroborates decades-old reports of hantavirus antigens in shrew tissues.
Apart from challenging the conventional view that rodents are the principal reservoir hosts, the recently identified soricid-borne hantaviruses raise the possibility that other soricomorphs, notably talpids, similarly harbor hantaviruses.
In analyzing RNA extracts from lung tissues of the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides), captured in Japan between February and April 2008, a hantavirus genome, designated Asama virus (ASAV), was detected by RT-PCR.
Pairwise alignment and comparison of the S-, M-, and L-segment nucleotide and amino acid sequences indicated that ASAV was genetically more similar to hantaviruses harbored by shrews than by rodents.
However, the predicted secondary structure of the ASAV nucleocapsid protein was similar to that of rodent- and shrew-borne hantaviruses, exhibiting the same coiled-coil helix at the amino terminus.
Phylogenetic analyses, using the maximum-likelihood method and other algorithms, consistently placed ASAV with recently identified soricine shrew-borne hantaviruses, suggesting a possible host-switching event in the distant past.
The discovery of a mole-borne hantavirus enlarges our concepts about the complex evolutionary history of hantaviruses.
* host switching
* talpid
* evolution
* Japan
Footnotes
* **To whom correspondence should be addressed at: John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 651 Ilalo Street, BSB 320L, Honolulu, HI 96813. E-mail: yanagiha@pbrc.hawaii.edu
* Author contributions: S.A. and R.Y. designed research; S.A., S.D.O., M.A., J.A., N.O., and R.Y. performed research; S.A. and H.J.K. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; S.A., S.D.O., H.J.K., G.M., and R.Y. analyzed data; and S.A., G.M., J.A., and R.Y. wrote the paper.
* The authors declare no conflict of interest.
* Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database [accession numbers: ASAV S segment (EU929070, EU929071, EU929072); ASAV M segment (EU929073, EU929074, EU929075); and ASAV L segment (EU929076, EU929077, EU929078].
* Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
* ? 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
-