Abstract
Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) is considered as an antigenic variant of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) which has an obvious host preference for pigeons and has caused significant economic losses to the global poultry industry. The evolutionary dynamics of PPMV-1 in China, however, are poorly understood. In this study, we characterized seven PPMV-1 isolates from diseased pigeons collected in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan provinces during 2020. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that seven isolates belonged to sub-genotype VI.2.1.1.2.2. Biological characterization indicated that seven isolates were mesogenic based on the mean death time (69.6–91.2 h) and intracerebral pathogenicity index (1.19–1.40) and had similar growth kinetics in chicken embryos and CEFs. Furthermore, the four representative viruses (AH/01/20/Pi, JS/06/20/Pi, HN/01/20/Pi, and HN/02/20/Pi) could result in marked cytopathic effects (CPE) in CEFs and induced syncytium formation in Vero cells. Our Bayesian phylogenetic analysis showed that PPMV-1 might first emerge in East China in 1974 and East China had the highest genotypic diversity of PPMV-1. Besides, phylogeographic analysis indicated that East China and South China were probably the major epicenters of dissemination of PPMV-1 in China. Selection pressure analysis and amino acid substitutions analysis revealed that the viral replication complex (NP, P, and L proteins) was likely related with the host preference of PPMV-1. Collectively, this study uncovered the epidemiology and evolutionary dynamics of PPMV-1 circulating in China, emphasizing the importance of strengthening the monitoring of PPMV-1 in East China and South China and providing significant clues for further studies on the molecular mechanism underlying host preference of PPMV-1.
Highlights
Newcastle disease (ND), caused by virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV), is an acute and highly contagious disease that has caused significant economic losses to the global poultry industry (1, 2)
To analyze the positive selection sites in different genes of PPMV1 isolates prevailing in China, the Fixed Effects Likelihood (FEL) method, the Mixed Effects Model of Evolution (MEME) method, the Fast Unconstrained Bayesian AppRoximation (FUBAR) method and Single Likelihood Ancestor Counting (SLAC) method provided on the Datamonkey website were used in this study
The cytopathic effect assay indicated that the four Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) isolates (AH/01/20/Pi, JS/06/20/Pi, HN/01/20/Pi, and HN/02/20/Pi) could induce severe cytopathic effects (CPE) including cell rounding, cell shrinkage, cell lysis and formation of large syncytia in chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) at 48 hpi (Figure 1H)
Summary
Newcastle disease (ND), caused by virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV), is an acute and highly contagious disease that has caused significant economic losses to the global poultry industry (1, 2). With the rapid development of China’s social economy and the continuous improvement in people’s quality of life in recent years, the pigeon industry has developed rapidly, but the epidemic situation of diseases caused by PPMV-1 is not optimistic. Since its first isolation in China in the 1980s, PPMV-1 has long been prevalent in numerous provinces and regions of China, seriously impeding the development of the pigeon industry (23–27). Several previous studies have suggested that PPMV-1 of China might have originated in Europe (14, 27, 29, 30). We further deeply investigated the prevalence, evolution and transmission dynamics of PPMV-1 prevailing in China. We identified specific amino acid substitutions in different proteins of PPMV-1 isolates by comparing the complete genome sequences of these viruses with those of chicken-origin NDVs. This study contributes to a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of PPMV-1 prevailing in China
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