Sequences of wild Puumala virus genes show a correlation of genetic variation with geographic origin of the strains

Abstract

An experimental scheme was developed for direct sequence analysis of Puumala virus-containing specimens from wild rodents (Clethrionomys glareolus). Total RNA isolated from rodent lung tissues was reversetranscribed in the presence of a universal 11 nucleotide primer complementary to all three viral RNA segments followed by amplification in a PCR with gene-specific primers. A full-length PCR product of approximately 1800 bp from the S segment encoding the viral nucleoprotein and a product of approximately 900 bp from the M segment (encoding the C-terminal two-thirds of the G2 protein and including the 3' non-coding region) of Puumala virus (from C. glareolus trapped in Udmurtia)were prepared and sequenced. No pronounced differences to Vero cell-grown viruses were seen. The Udmurtia/894Cg/91 strain was more closely related to the Bashkiria/CG18-20/84 strain than to the Finnish prototype strain of Puumala virus, Sotkamo/V-2969/81. Thus there is a correlation with the geographic origin of the three strains. The results indicate the occurrence of genetic drift and different selection pressures leading to (i) clustering of mutations, (ii) a lower frequency of nucleotide substitutions in the coding than in the 3' noncoding regions and (iii) a higher frequency of amino acid substitutions in G2 than in the N protein.

Genetic Diversity of Thottapalayam Virus, a Hantavirus Harbored by the Asian House Shrew (Suncus murinus) in Nepal

“…16 These data were also consistent with the geographic-specific lineages shown previously for rodent-borne hantaviruses, including HTNV in Apodemus agrarius , 26 Soochong virus in Apodemus peninsulae , 27 Puumala virus in Myodes glareolus , 28,29 Muju virus in Myodes regulus , 30 and Tula virus in Microtus arvalis . 31 Overall, these data were suggestive of long-standing associations between hantaviruses and their reservoir rodent and soricid hosts, but the basis for these relationships through evolutionary time is unclear.…”

Epidemiological Study of Hantavirus Infection in the Samara Region of European Russia

“…According to a theory proposed by Plyusnin et al [30,31], the extent of hantavirus diversity is proportional to the geographic distance between the areas of their circulation. However, while the microgeographical relationships among hantaviruses might be linearly proportional, the macrogeographical relationships are likely to be more complex.…”

Puumala hantavirus and Myodes glareolus in northern Europe: no evidence of co-divergence between genetic lineages of virus and host

“…Previous studies of hantaviruses in northern Europe identified four distinct genetic lineages of PUUV: Finnish (FIN), North Scandinavian (N-SCA), South Scandinavian (S-SCA) and Danish (DAN) (Plyusnin et al, 1994(Plyusnin et al, , 1995Hörling et al, 1996;Lundkvist et al, 1998;Asikainen et al, 2000;Sironen et al, 2002;Johansson et al, 2008). The FIN lineage was recovered from bank voles trapped in southcentral Finland and Russian Karelia, the DAN lineage originated from the Danish island of Fyn, and the lineages N-SCA and S-SCA were identified in bank vole populations that located to the north and south of the Scandinavian bank vole population border, respectively.…”