Complete Nucleotide Sequences of the M and S Segments of Two Hantavirus Isolates from California: Evidence for Reassortment in Nature among Viruses Related to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Abstract

We report the complete nucleotide sequence of the M and the S genome segments and a portion of the L segments of two hantavirus isolates from Peromyscus maniculatus trapped in eastern California. The isolates, Convict Creek 107 and 74 (CC107 and CC74) are genetically similar to viruses known to cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in New Mexico. CC107 and CC74 each have an M segment consisting of 3696 nucleotides with a coding potential of 1140 amino acids in the virus complementary-sense RNA (cRNA). The S segments of CC107 and CC74 are 2083 and 2047 nucleotides long, respectively, and each has an ORF in the cRNA capable of encoding a protein of 428 amino acids. Unusually long 3' noncoding regions of 757 and 721 nucleotides follow the S segment ORF of CC107 and CC74, respectively, and include numerous imperfect repetitive sequences. Whereas the M and S segments of any given hantavirus typically appear to diverge at comparable rates from homologous genes of any other hantavirus, CC107 and CC74 have M segments that differ by only 1% from one another but S segments that differ by 13%. After trivial explanations are rendered improbable, i.e., by consideration of the genetics of closely and distantly related hantaviruses, the most likely explanation for our data is that hantavirus genome segment reassortment occurred within rodent populations in California.

Generation and characterization of genetic reassortants between Puumala and Prospect Hill hantavirus in vitro

“…After dual infection of Vero cells with DOBV strain Slovakia and DOBV strain Slovenia, only M-segment reassortants (65 clones) were isolated, beside clones with the parental (77 clones) and unstable diploid genomes (65 clones) (Kirsanovs and others, unpublished). In vivo a similar preference for the M-segment reassortment was reported for SNV (Henderson et al, 1995;Li et al, 1995). In contrast to the reassortment patterns observed for SNV and DOBV, no M-segment preference was found in mice infected with two different PUUV lineages (Razzauti et al, 2009).…”

“…Generation of reassortants between different hantavirus strains has been reported by several groups in vivo and in vitro. In most of the cases the described reassortants derived from different lineages of the same hantavirus species (Henderson et al, 1995;Klempa et al, 2003;Li et al, 1995;Razzauti et al, 2009;Rizvanov et al, 2004;Rodriguez et al, 1998;Zou et al, 2008). Between different virus species reassortment is restricted in vivo due to the narrow host range, which prevents dual infection of the same host and cell.…”

Variability of the NS(S) protein among Rift Valley fever virus isolates.

“…Its presence within the Egyptian lineage, although puzzling, may be due to a reassortment event. Indeed, the circulation of phylogenetically distinct strains in the same region and at the same period provides ideal conditions for a host to be co-infected and generate reassortants as occurs naturally for other members of the bunyavirus family like hantaviruses (Li et al, 1995 ;Henderson et al, 1995) and in other families of viruses with segmented genomes (Murphy & Webster, 1990). Further work will be necessary to test whether some of these viruses result from reassortment.…”

Genetic Interaction between Distinct Dobrava Hantavirus Subtypes in Apodemus agrarius and A. flavicollis in Nature

“…Natural genetic reassortment of genomic RNA segments has been also found within the SNV species (7,9). Moreover, genetic reassortants involving S and M segments were detected after mixed infections in tissue culture by using two distinguishable strains of SNV.…”