Dahonggou Creek virus, a divergent lineage of hantavirus harbored by the long-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fusicaudus).

Hae Ji Kang,Joseph A Cook,Richard Yanagihara,Se Hun Gu

doi:10.1186/s41182-016-0017-6

Hae Ji Kang, Joseph A Cook + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-016-0017-6

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Abstract

Novel hantaviruses, recently detected in moles (order Eulipotyphla, family Talpidae) from Europe, Asia, and North America would predict a broader host range and wider ecological diversity. Employing RT-PCR, archival frozen tissues from the Chinese shrew mole (Uropsilus soricipes), broad-footed mole (Scapanus latimanus), coast mole (Scapanus orarius), Townsend’s mole (Scapanus townsendii), and long-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fusicaudus) were analyzed for hantavirus RNA. Following multiple attempts, a previously unrecognized hantavirus, designated Dahonggou Creek virus (DHCV), was detected in a long-tailed mole, captured in Shimian County, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China, in August 1989. Analyses of a 1058-nucleotide region of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase-encoding L segment indicated that DHCV was genetically distinct from other rodent-, shrew-, mole-, and bat-borne hantaviruses. Phylogenetic trees, using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods, showed that DHCV represented a divergent lineage comprising crocidurine and myosoricine shrew-borne hantaviruses. Although efforts to obtain the S- and M-genomic segments failed, the L-segment sequence analysis, reported here, expands the genetic database of non-rodent-borne hantaviruses. Also, by further mining natural history collections of archival specimens, the genetic diversity of hantaviruses will elucidate their evolutionary origins.

Highlights

Hantaviruses are members of the family Bunyaviridae, all of whom possess a negative-sense, singlestranded tripartite RNA genome, consisting of large (L), medium (M), and small (S) segments, which encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), envelope glycoproteins (Gn and Gc), and a nucleocapsid (N) protein, respectively [1]
Unlike other members of this large virus family which are carried by insects or arthropods, hantaviruses are hosted by small mammals, notably rodents, as well as shrews, belonging to three subfamilies
In testing archival frozen tissues from a natural history collection of moles, trapped in the People’s Republic of China and the USA, we report the detection of a novel hantavirus, named Dahonggou Creek virus (DHCV), in the long-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fusicaudus)

Summary

Introduction

Hantaviruses are members of the family Bunyaviridae, all of whom possess a negative-sense, singlestranded tripartite RNA genome, consisting of large (L), medium (M), and small (S) segments, which encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), envelope glycoproteins (Gn and Gc), and a nucleocapsid (N) protein, respectively [1]. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article and Myosoricinae), and moles (family Talpidae) of the Talpinae and Scalopinae subfamilies [2, 3].

Results

Conclusion