Abstract

The alphaviruses o'nyong nyong virus (ONNV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) provide a unique system to study the viral genes involved in vector specificity. ONNV infects both anopheline and culicine mosquitoes, whereas CHIKV infects only culicine mosquitoes. In this study, chimeric viruses were constructed that contained genes from both ONNV and CHIKV. These chimeras and previously described full-length infectious clones of ONNV and CHIKV were evaluated in Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Virus derived from the infectious clones of ONNV and CHIKV retained the vector specificity of the parental viruses. All six of the chimeras were found to infect Ae. aegypti mosquitoes at high rates but only the chimera containing viral genes encoding all of the structural proteins of ONNV was able to infect An. gambiae mosquitoes. These data indicate that all of the viral structural proteins are necessary for ONNV to infect An. gambiae mosquitoes.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.