Novel lineages of Seewis virus in Sorex araneus and Sorex minutus from Central Europe

0398331 - ÚBO 2014 DE eng A - Abstract
Radosa, L. - Schlegel, M. - Gebauer, P. - Ansorge, H. - Rosenfeld, U. M. - Schmidt, S. - Triebenbacher, C. - Fuchs, D. - Heroldová, Marta - Jánová, Eva - Stanko, M. - Mošanský, L. - Fričová, J. - Pejčoch, M. - Suchomel, J. - Purchart, L. - Groschup, M. H. - Krüger, D. H. - Ulrich, R. G. - Klempa, B.
Novel lineages of Seewis virus in Sorex araneus and Sorex minutus from Central Europe.
23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Virology. Kiel: Christian-Albrechts-Universität, 2013. s. 387.
[Annual Meeting of the Society of Virology /23./. 06.03.2013-09.03.2013, Kiel]
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : hantaviruses * shrews
http://www.virology-meeting.de/fileadmin/media/2013/gfv/Druckelemente/GfV2013_Programme.pdf

Recent discovery of genetically distinct hantaviruses (genus Hantavirus, family Bunyaviridae) in bats and moles, as well as in multiple species of shrews contests the conventional view that rodents are the principal reservoir hosts of hantaviruses. In Europe, only one shrew borne hantavirus is known; Seewis virus (SWSV) associated with common shrew (Sorex araneus). The objective of our study was to investigate the presence, distribution, virus-host specifi city, and molecular evolution of shrew-borne hantaviruses in Central Europe. Therefore, a total of 445 shrews of the Soricinae and 27 shrews of the Crocidurinae subfamily were collected in Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Screening by genus-specifi c L-segment RT-PCR revealed specifi c amplification products in tissues of 50 out of 353 S. araneus and 6 out of 63 S. minutus. Phylogenetic analyses of L and S segment sequences showed that the detected hantavirus strains belong to two distinct clades. 53 samples clustered together with previously reported SWSV, while 3 samples from S. minutus formed a separate clade, which has been later shown to resemble with Assikala virus from Finland. Our first comprehensive sequence analysis of SWSV strains from Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia showed its broad geographical distribution, high genetic divergence, and strong geographic clustering. The detection of Asikkala virus indicates presence of another shrew-borne hantavirus in Central Europe of unknown pathogenic potential for humans.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0225858