Revealing new measles virus transmission routes by use of sequence analysis of phosphoprotein and hemagglutinin genes.

ABSTRACT: With improved measles virus (MV) control, the genetic variability of the MV-nucleoprotein hypervariable region (NP-HVR) decreases. Thus, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the origin of a virus using only this part of the genome. During outbreaks in Europe and Africa, we found MV strains with identical NP-HVR sequences. However, these strains showed considerable diversity within a larger sequencing window based on concatenated MV phosphoprotein and hemagglutinin genes (P/H pseudogenes). In Belarus, Germany, Russia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the P/H pseudogenes provided insights into chains of transmission, whereas identical NP-HVR provided none. In Russia, for instance, the P/H pseudogene identified temporal clusters rather than geographical clusters, demonstrating

SUBMITTER: Kessler JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3043479 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature