Abstract
Bagaza virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, first isolated in 1966 in Central African Republic. It has currently been identified in mosquito pools collected in the field in West and Central Africa. Emergence in wild birds in Europe and serological evidence in encephalitis patients in India raise questions on its genetic evolution and the diversity of isolates circulating in Africa. To better understand genetic diversity and evolution of Bagaza virus, we describe the full-genome characterization of 11 West African isolates, sampled from 1988 to 2014. Parameters such as genetic distances, N-glycosylation patterns, recombination events, selective pressures, and its codon adaptation to human genes are assessed. Our study is noteworthy for the observation of N-glycosylation and recombination in Bagaza virus and provides insight into its Indian origin from the 13th century. Interestingly, evidence of Bagaza virus codon adaptation to human house-keeping genes is also observed to be higher than those of other flaviviruses well known in human infections. Genetic variations on genome of West African Bagaza virus could play an important role in generating diversity and may promote Bagaza virus adaptation to other vertebrates and become an important threat in human health.
Highlights
Bagaza virus (BAGV) belongs to the Flaviridae family, Flavivirus genus and Ntaya serological group
We investigated the genetic properties of these different isolates circulating in West Africa, such as genome length and location of main conserved amino acid motifs previously described in mosquito-borne flaviviruses (MBFVs) with sometimes mutations which include no physicochemical properties changes [3]
The 50 untranslated regions (UTRs) was similar in length, the 30 UTR of these West African isolates was either 10 nt or 137 nt longer than those of sequences from Central African Republic (CAR) and Spain, respectively
Summary
Bagaza virus (BAGV) belongs to the Flaviridae family, Flavivirus genus and Ntaya serological group. BAGV has been isolated repeatedly with a high titer from different species of mosquitoes in Central and West African countries [4,5,6], and in India, where serological investigations suggested subclinical infections in humans [7,8]. Despite this widespread circulation of BAGV, outbreaks involving humans or animals have not yet been reported from these countries. It is not surprising that BAGV infects birds since it has been shown to be synonymous with Israel turkey
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