Genomic analysis of a Chinese isolate of Getah-like virus and its phylogenetic relationship with other Alphaviruses

Abstract

An alphavirus, M-1 strain, was isolated from a pool of culicine mosquitoes collected in Hainan island of China during an arbovirus survey in 1964. In the present study, we determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the M-1 strain using RT-PCR and RACE techniques. The M-1 genome is 11,690 nucleotides (nt) in length and contains two open reading frames (ORFs) encoding four nonstructural proteins and five structural proteins, respectively. Searches using Blast and comparison analyses suggested that M-1 is closely linked to Sagiyama virus (SAGV, AB032553) with 98% identity and Getah viruse (GETV, AY702913) with 97.8% identity in the full-length nucleotide sequence. However, compared with SAGV, there is 1 deletion (3 nucleotides in length) in the Capsid region, a deletion in the 3' untranslated region (10 nucleotides in length) and 2 insertions in the 3' untranslated region involving a total of 5 nucleotides. Interestingly, from the 5' UTR to the end of coding region, M-1 share the highest identity with GETV, even though the identity of 3' UTR drops dramatically to 76.2%. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis based on the complete genomic sequences and sequences for structural or non-structural proteins of M-1 and 15 alphaviruses showed that M-1 grouped with GETV first and then grouped together with SAGV. Based on the comparison analysis and phylogenetic analysis, we conclude that M-1 strain can be considered as a strain that is a Chinese isolate of Getah-like virus.

Complete Genome Sequencing and Phylogenetic Analysis of a Getah Virus Strain (GenusAlphavirus, FamilyTogaviridae) Isolated fromCulex tritaeniorhynchusMosquitoes in Nagasaki, Japan in 2012

“…Previous studies have shown that the genomes of several GETV strains contain insertions or deletions in proteincoding or noncoding regions (Wen et al 2007, Zhai et al 2008). However, we found no insertions or deletions in the genome sequence of strain 12IH26.…”

Naturally Existing Oncolytic Virus M1 Is Nonpathogenic for the Nonhuman Primates After Multiple Rounds of Repeated Intravenous Injections

“…As shown in Figure 1A, its genome is a positive, single strand RNA, which encodes several structural and non-structural proteins 3 . In the previous study, we identified and characterized alphavirus M1 as a naturally existing oncolytic virus for the reason that M1 virus can selectively replicate in cancer cells and destroy them without causing excessive damage to normal tissues 4,5 .…”

A classical PKA inhibitor increases the oncolytic effect of M1 virus via activation of exchange protein directly activated by cAMP 1

“…M1 is an alphavirus isolated in the 1960s from the Hainan province of China, and belongs to the Togavirus family of viruses [15]. The genome of M1 is 11,690 nucleotides (nt) in length and contains two open reading frames, encoding four nonstructural proteins (nsP1-nsP2-nsP3-nsP4), and five structural proteins (C-E3-E2-6K-E1) [15]. What's more, the direct cell lytic effect of M1 is through prolonged and severe Endoplasmic reticulum(ER) stress induced apoptosis in cancer cells.…”