Isolation and Identification of a Novel Rabies Virus Lineage in China with Natural Recombinant Nucleoprotein Gene |
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| Authors: | Cheng-Qiang He Sheng-Li Meng Hong-Yan Yan Nai-Zheng Ding Hong-Bin He Jia-Xin Yan Ge-Lin Xu |
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| Institution: | 1Key Laboratory of Systems Biology in Universities of Shandong, College of Life Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China;2Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, Wuhan, China;3Dairy Cattle Research Center, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China;University of Florida, United States of America |
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| Abstract: | Rabies virus (RABV) causes severe neurological disease and death. As an important mechanism for generating genetic diversity in viruses, homologous recombination can lead to the emergence of novel virus strains with increased virulence and changed host tropism. However, it is still unclear whether recombination plays a role in the evolution of RABV. In this study, we isolated and sequenced four circulating RABV strains in China. Phylogenetic analyses identified a novel lineage of hybrid origin that comprises two different strains, J and CQ92. Analyses revealed that the virus 3′ untranslated region (UTR) and part of the N gene (approximate 500 nt in length) were likely derived from Chinese lineage I while the other part of the genomic sequence was homologous to Chinese lineage II. Our findings reveal that homologous recombination can occur naturally in the field and shape the genetic structure of RABV populations. |
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