1. Rabies virus in insectivorous bats: implications of the diversity of the nucleoprotein and glycoprotein genes for molecular epidemiology.
- Author
-
Oliveira Rde N, de Souza SP, Lobo RS, Castilho JG, Macedo CI, Carnieli P Jr, Fahl WO, Achkar SM, Scheffer KC, Kotait I, Carrieri ML, and Brandão PE
- Subjects
- Animals, Brazil epidemiology, Chiroptera classification, Genetic Variation, Mice, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Rabies epidemiology, Rabies virology, Rabies virus classification, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Species Specificity, Antigens, Viral genetics, Chiroptera virology, Glycoproteins genetics, Molecular Epidemiology, Nucleocapsid Proteins genetics, Rabies veterinary, Rabies virus genetics, Viral Envelope Proteins genetics
- Abstract
Insectivorous bats are the main reservoirs of rabies virus (RABV) in various regions of the world. The aims of this study were to (a) establish genealogies for RABV strains from different species of Brazilian insectivorous bats based on the nucleoprotein (N) and glycoprotein (G) genes, (b) investigate specific RABV lineages associated with certain genera of bats and (c) identify molecular markers that can distinguish between these lineages. The genealogic analysis of N and G from 57 RABV strains revealed seven genus-specific clusters related to the insectivorous bats Myotis, Eptesicus, Nyctinomops, Molossus, Tadarida, Histiotus and Lasiurus. Molecular markers in the amino acid sequences were identified which were specific to the seven clusters. These results, which constitute a novel finding for this pathogen, show that there are at least seven independent epidemiological rabies cycles maintained by seven genera of insectivorous bats in Brazil., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
- View/download PDF