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Characterization of Imjin virus, a newly isolated hantavirus from the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura).

ABSTRACT: Until recently, the single known exception to the rodent-hantavirus association was Thottapalayam virus (TPMV), a long-unclassified virus isolated from the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus). Robust gene amplification techniques have now uncovered several genetically distinct hantaviruses from shrews in widely separated geographic regions. Here, we report the characterization of a newly identified hantavirus, designated Imjin virus (MJNV), isolated from the lung tissues of Ussuri white-toothed shrews of the species Crocidura lasiura (order Soricomorpha, family Soricidae, subfamily Crocidurinae) captured near the demilitarized zone in the Republic of Korea during 2004 and 2005. Seasonal trapping revealed the highest prevalence of MJNV infection during the autumn, with evidence of infected shrews' clustering in distinct foci. Also, marked male predominance among anti-MJNV immunoglobulin G antibody-positive Ussuri shrews was found, whereas the male-to-female ratio among seronegative Ussuri shrews was near 1. Plaque reduction neutralization tests showed no cross neutralization for MJNV and rodent-borne hantaviruses but one-way cross neutralization for MJNV and TPMV. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences for the different MJNV genomic segments revealed nearly the same calculated distances from hantaviruses harbored by rodents in the subfamilies Murinae, Arvicolinae, Neotominae, and Sigmodontinae. Phylogenetic analyses of full-length S, M, and L segment sequences demonstrated that MJNV shared a common ancestry with TPMV and remained in a distinct out-group, suggesting early evolutionary divergence. Studies are in progress to determine if MJNV is pathogenic for humans.

SUBMITTER: Song JW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2687366 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Characterization of Imjin virus, a newly isolated hantavirus from the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura).

Song Jin-Won JW Kang Hae Ji HJ Gu Se Hun SH Moon Sung Sil SS Bennett Shannon N SN Song Ki-Joon KJ Baek Luck Ju LJ Kim Heung-Chul HC O'Guinn Monica L ML Chong Sung-Tae ST Klein Terry A TA Yanagihara Richard R

Journal of virology 20090408 12

Until recently, the single known exception to the rodent-hantavirus association was Thottapalayam virus (TPMV), a long-unclassified virus isolated from the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus). Robust gene amplification techniques have now uncovered several genetically distinct hantaviruses from shrews in widely separated geographic regions. Here, we report the characterization of a newly identified hantavirus, designated Imjin virus (MJNV), isolated from the lung tissues of Ussuri white-toothed s ...[more]

PMID: 19357167

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Project description:BackgroundTanganya virus (TGNV), the only shrew-associated hantavirus reported to date from sub-Saharan Africa, is harbored by the Therese's shrew (Crocidura theresae), and is phylogenetically distinct from Thottapalayam virus (TPMV) in the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) and Imjin virus (MJNV) in the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura). The existence of myriad soricid-borne hantaviruses in Eurasia and North America would predict the presence of additional hantaviruses in sub-Saharan Africa, where multiple shrew lineages have evolved and diversified.MethodsLung tissues, collected in RNAlater®, from 39 Buettikofer's shrews (Crocidura buettikoferi), 5 Jouvenet's shrews (Crocidura jouvenetae), 9 West African pygmy shrews (Crocidura obscurior) and 21 African giant shrews (Crocidura olivieri) captured in Côte d'Ivoire during 2009, were systematically examined for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR.ResultsA genetically distinct hantavirus, designated Azagny virus (AZGV), was detected in the West African pygmy shrew. Phylogenetic analysis of the S, M and L segments, using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods, under the GTR+I+Γ model of evolution, showed that AZGV shared a common ancestry with TGNV and was more closely related to hantaviruses harbored by soricine shrews than to TPMV and MJNV. That is, AZGV in the West African pygmy shrew, like TGNV in the Therese's shrew, did not form a monophyletic group with TPMV and MJNV, which were deeply divergent and basal to other rodent- and soricomorph-borne hantaviruses. Ancestral distributions of each hantavirus lineage, reconstructed using Mesquite 2.74, suggested that the common ancestor of all hantaviruses was most likely of Eurasian, not African, origin.ConclusionsGenome-wide analysis of many more hantaviruses from sub-Saharan Africa are required to better understand how the biogeographic origin and radiation of African shrews might have contributed to, or have resulted from, the evolution of hantaviruses.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Crocidura, the most speciose mammalian genus, occurs across much of Asia, Europe and Africa. The taxonomy of Chinese representatives has been studied primarily based on cursory morphological comparisons and their molecular phylogenetic analyses remain unexplored. In order to understand the phylogeny of this group in China, we estimated the first multilocus phylogeny and conducted species delimitation, including taxon sampling throughout their distribution range. RESULTS:We obtained one mitochondrial gene (cytb) (~ 1, 134 bp) and three nuclear genes (ApoB, BRCA1, RAG1) (~ 2, 170 bp) for 132 samples from 57 localities. Molecular analyses identified at least 14 putative species that occur within two major well-supported groups in China. Polyphyletic C. wuchihensis appears to be composed of two putative species. Two subspecies, C. rapax rapax and C. rapax kurodai should be elevated to full species status. A phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial gene from Asian Crocidura species showed that the C. rapax rapax is embedded within C. attenuata, making the latter a paraphyletic group. Three strongly supported undescribed species (C. sp.1, C. sp.2 and C. sp.3) are revealed from Zada County of Tibet (Western China), Hongjiang County of Hunan Province (Central China) and Dongyang County of Zhejiang Province (Eastern China), Motuo County of Tibet, respectively. The divergence time estimation suggested that China's Crocidura species began to diversify during the late Pliocene (3.66 Ma) and the Early Pleistocene (2.29 Ma), followed by a series of diversifications through the Pleistocene. CONCLUSIONS:The cryptic diversity found in this study indicated that the number of species is strongly underestimated under the current taxonomy. We propose that the three undescribed species should be evaluated using extensive taxon sampling and comprehensive morphological and morphometric approaches. Climate change since the late Pliocene and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may result in the diversification and speciation of China's Crocidura species. In short, the underestimated diversity underlines the need for a taxonomic revision of Chinese Crocidura species.

Dataset Information

Characterization of Imjin virus, a newly isolated hantavirus from the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura).

Publications

Characterization of Imjin virus, a newly isolated hantavirus from the Ussuri white-toothed shrew (Crocidura lasiura).

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