Evidence of recombination in Tula virus strains from Serbia

•We analysed Tula hantavirus sequences from Serbia recovered from different rodents and time points.•Phylogenetic analysis is suggestive of geographically but not host related clustering.•Serbian sequences consistently cluster together with those from Slovakia, previously shown to be recombinants.•E...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infection, genetics and evolution genetics and evolution, 2014-01, Vol.21, p.472-478
Main Authors: Nikolic, Valentina, Stajkovic, Novica, Stamenkovic, Gorana, Cekanac, Radovan, Marusic, Predrag, Siljic, Marina, Gligic, Ana, Stanojevic, Maja
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Evolution, Molecular
Genetic Drift
Hantavirus - classification
Hantavirus - genetics
Molecular evolution
Phylogenetic analysis
Phylogeny
Phylogeography
Recombination
Recombination, Genetic
RNA, Viral - analysis
Rodentia - virology
Sequence Analysis, Protein
Serbia
Tula virus
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Summary:•We analysed Tula hantavirus sequences from Serbia recovered from different rodents and time points.•Phylogenetic analysis is suggestive of geographically but not host related clustering.•Serbian sequences consistently cluster together with those from Slovakia, previously shown to be recombinants.•Exploratory recombination analysis revealed recombination in the S segment of studied TULVs from Serbia. Tula hantavirus (TULV) belongs to Bunyaviridae family, with negative sense RNA genome. Segmented nature of hantaviral genome allows for genetic reassortment, but the evidence of homologous recombination also exists. In this study we analyzed TULV sequences isolated in Serbia on different occasions and from different rodent hosts: 1987 strain from Microtus subterraneus and 2007 strain from Microtus arvalis. Phylogenetic analysis of both L and S segment sequences is suggestive of geographically related clustering, as previously shown for majority of hantaviruses. Reconstruction of phylogenetic tree for TULV S segment showed that both sequences from Serbia clustered together with sequences from East Slovakia, which had previously been shown to be recombinants (Kosice strain). Exploratory recombination analysis, supported by phylogenetic and amino acid pattern analysis, revealed the presence of recombination in the S segment sequences from Serbia, resulting in mosaic-like structure of TULV S segment similar to the one of Kosice strain. Although recombination is considered a rare event in molecular evolution of negative strand RNA viruses, obtained molecular data in this study support evidence of recombination in TULV, in geographically distant regions of Europe.
ISSN:1567-1348
1567-7257
DOI:10.1016/j.meegid.2013.08.020