Animal Rhabdoviruses

Abstract

There is a constantly growing list of rhabdoviruses (presently 85), isolated from a variety of vertebrate or invertebrate hosts, that are partially characterized and are still waiting for definitive species assignation. These viruses share bullet-shaped morphology and a genome organization featuring five long open reading frames (ORFs) that are typical of all rhabdoviruses, and additional ORFs located between the phosphoprotein and the matrix protein genes and between the glycoprotein and polymerase genes. They infect a wide range of mammals, including man, and transmission is commonly vector-borne, particularly by hematophagous insects. The relationships between many of these unassigned rhabdoviruses have been determined based on serological cross-reactions and, more recently, according to phylogenetic analysis performed on partial sequences of the polymerase and nucleoprotein genes. Six serogroups (Hart Park group, Le Dantec group, Bahia Grande group, Timbo group, Sawgrass group, and Kern Canyon group) have been distinguished, three of them being supported as independent clades by the phylogenetic analysis. Furthermore, based on the phylogeny, four other groups can be proposed: Almpiwar group, Tibrogargan group, Mount Elgon bat group, and Kolongo and Sandjimba group. Many other animal rhabdoviruses remain ungrouped and unassigned.