| evidence for ribosomal frameshifting and a novel overlapping gene in the genomes of insect-specific flaviviruses. | flaviviruses have a positive-sense, single-stranded rna genome of approximately 11 kb, encoding a large polyprotein that is cleaved to produce approximately 10 mature proteins. cell fusing agent virus, kamiti river virus, culex flavivirus and several recently discovered flaviviruses have no known vertebrate host and apparently infect only insects. we present compelling bioinformatic evidence for a 253-295 codon overlapping gene (designated fifo) conserved throughout these insect-specific flavivi ... | 2010 | 20097399 |
| the neglected arboviral infections in mainland china. | the major arboviral diseases in mainland china include japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever (also known as xinjiang hemorrhagic fever), and tick-borne encephalitis. these and other newly found arbovirus infections due to banna virus and tahyna virus contribute to a large and relatively neglected disease burden in china. here we briefly review the literature regarding these arboviral infections in mainland china with emphasis on their epidemiology, primary vectors, ... | 2010 | 20436960 |
| structural and functional analyses of a conserved hydrophobic pocket of flavivirus methyltransferase. | the flavivirus methyltransferase (mtase) sequentially methylates the n7 and 2'-o positions of the viral rna cap (gpppa-rna → m(7)gpppa-rna → m(7)gpppam-rna), using s-adenosyl-l-methionine (adomet) as a methyl donor. we report here that sinefungin (sin), an adomet analog, inhibits several flaviviruses through suppression of viral mtase. the crystal structure of west nile virus mtase in complex with sin inhibitor at 2.0-å resolution revealed a flavivirus-conserved hydrophobic pocket located next t ... | 2010 | 20685660 |
| newly recognized mosquito-associated viruses in mainland china, in the last two decades. | there are four principal arboviruses in mainland china. two kinds of them are mosquito-borne viruses, namely japanese encephalitis virus and dengue virus, which lead to japanese encephalitis, and dengue fever/dengue hemorrhagic fever respectively; the other two are tick-borne viruses, namely tick-borne encephalitis virus and crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever virus (also known as xinjiang hemorrhagic fever virus), which contribute to tick-borne encephalitis and xinjiang hemorrhagic fever respective ... | 2011 | 21314994 |
| novel flaviviruses detected in different species of mosquitoes in spain. | abstract we report the characterization of three novel flaviviruses isolated in spain. marisma mosquito virus, a novel mosquito borne virus, was isolated from ochlerotatus caspius mosquitoes; spanish ochlerotatus flavivirus and spanish culex flavivirus, two novel insect flaviviruses, were isolated from oc. caspius and culex pipiens, respectively. during this investigation, we designed a sensitive rt-nested polymerase chain reaction method that amplifies a 1019bp fragment of the flavivirus ns5 ... | 2011 | 22022811 |
| insect-specific virus discovery: significance for the arbovirus community. | arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), especially those transmitted by mosquitoes, are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in humans and animals worldwide. recent discoveries indicate that mosquitoes are naturally infected with a wide range of other viruses, many within taxa occupied by arboviruses that are considered insect-specific. over the past ten years there has been a dramatic increase in the literature describing novel insect-specific virus detection in mosquitoes, which has p ... | 2015 | 26378568 |
| insect-specific flaviviruses: a systematic review of their discovery, host range, mode of transmission, superinfection exclusion potential and genomic organization. | there has been a dramatic increase in the number of insect-specific flaviviruses (isfs) discovered in the last decade. historically, these viruses have generated limited interest due to their inability to infect vertebrate cells. this viewpoint has changed in recent years because some isfs have been shown to enhance or suppress the replication of medically important flaviviruses in co-infected mosquito cells. additionally, comparative studies between isfs and medically important flaviviruses can ... | 2015 | 25866904 |
| a new insect-specific flavivirus from northern australia suppresses replication of west nile virus and murray valley encephalitis virus in co-infected mosquito cells. | recent reports of a novel group of flaviviruses that replicate only in mosquitoes and appear to spread through insect populations via vertical transmission have emerged from around the globe. to date, there is no information on the presence or prevalence of these insect-specific flaviviruses (isfs) in australian mosquito species. to assess whether such viruses occur locally, we used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) and flavivirus universal primers that are specific to the ... | 2013 | 23460804 |
| mosquito-borne arbovirus surveillance at selected sites in diverse ecological zones of kenya; 2007 - 2012. | increased frequency of arbovirus outbreaks in east africa necessitated the determination of distribution of risk by entomologic arbovirus surveillance. a systematic vector surveillance programme spanning 5 years and covering 11 sites representing seven of the eight provinces in kenya and located in diverse ecological zones was carried out. | 2013 | 23663381 |
| viral interference and persistence in mosquito-borne flaviviruses. | mosquito-borne flaviviruses are important pathogens for humans, and the detection of two or more flaviviruses cocirculating in the same geographic area has often been reported. however, the epidemiological impact remains to be determined. mosquito-borne flaviviruses are primarily transmitted through aedes and culex mosquitoes; these viruses establish a life-long or persistent infection without apparent pathological effects. this establishment requires a balance between virus replication and the ... | 2015 | 26583158 |
| potential for co-infection of a mosquito-specific flavivirus, nhumirim virus, to block west nile virus transmission in mosquitoes. | nhumirim virus (nhuv) is an insect-specific virus that phylogenetically affiliates with dual-host mosquito-borne flaviviruses. previous in vitro co-infection experiments demonstrated prior or concurrent infection of aedes albopictus c6/36 mosquito cells with nhuv resulted in a 10,000-fold reduction in viral production of west nile virus (wnv). this interference between wnv and nhuv was observed herein in an additional ae. albopictus mosquito cell line, c7-10. a wnv 2k peptide (v9m) mutant capabl ... | 2015 | 26569286 |
| mercadeo virus: a novel mosquito-specific flavivirus from panama. | viruses in the genus flavivirus (family flaviviridae) include many arthropod-borne viruses of public health and veterinary importance. however, during the past two decades an explosion of novel insect-specific flaviviruses (isfs), some closely related to vertebrate pathogens, have been discovered. although many flavivirus pathogens of vertebrates have been isolated from naturally infected mosquitoes in panama, isfs have not previously been reported from the country. this report describes the iso ... | 2015 | 26304915 |
| ecuador paraiso escondido virus, a new flavivirus isolated from new world sand flies in ecuador, is the first representative of a novel clade in the genus flavivirus. | a new flavivirus, ecuador paraiso escondido virus (epev), named after the village where it was discovered, was isolated from sand flies (psathyromyia abonnenci, formerly lutzomyia abonnenci) that are unique to the new world. this represents the first sand fly-borne flavivirus identified in the new world. epev exhibited a typical flavivirus genome organization. nevertheless, the maximum pairwise amino acid sequence identity with currently recognized flaviviruses was 52.8%. phylogenetic analysis o ... | 2015 | 26355096 |
| new insights into flavivirus evolution, taxonomy and biogeographic history, extended by analysis of canonical and alternative coding sequences. | to generate the most diverse phylogenetic dataset for the flaviviruses to date, we determined the genomic sequences and phylogenetic relationships of 14 flaviviruses, of which 10 are primarily associated with culex spp. mosquitoes. we analyze these data, in conjunction with a comprehensive collection of flavivirus genomes, to characterize flavivirus evolutionary and biogeographic history in unprecedented detail and breadth. based on the presumed introduction of yellow fever virus into the americ ... | 2015 | 25719412 |
| novel flaviviruses from mosquitoes: mosquito-specific evolutionary lineages within the phylogenetic group of mosquito-borne flaviviruses. | novel flaviviruses that are genetically related to pathogenic mosquito-borne flaviviruses (mbfv) have been isolated from mosquitoes in various geographical locations, including finland. we isolated and characterized another novel virus of this group from finnish mosquitoes collected in 2007, designated as ilomantsi virus (ilov). unlike the mbfv that infect both vertebrates and mosquitoes, the mbfv-related viruses appear to be specific to mosquitoes similar to the insect-specific flaviviruses (is ... | 2014 | 25108382 |
| characterization of a novel insect-specific flavivirus from brazil: potential for inhibition of infection of arthropod cells with medically important flaviviruses. | in the past decade, there has been an upsurge in the number of newly described insect-specific flaviviruses isolated pan-globally. we recently described the isolation of a novel flavivirus (tentatively designated 'nhumirim virus'; nhuv) that represents an example of a unique subset of apparently insect-specific viruses that phylogenetically affiliate with dual-host mosquito-borne flaviviruses despite appearing to be limited to replication in mosquito cells. we characterized the in vitro growth p ... | 2014 | 25146007 |
| evaluation of a field-portable dna microarray platform and nucleic acid amplification strategies for the detection of arboviruses, arthropods, and bloodmeals. | highly multiplexed assays, such as microarrays, can benefit arbovirus surveillance by allowing researchers to screen for hundreds of targets at once. we evaluated amplification strategies and the practicality of a portable dna microarray platform to analyze virus-infected mosquitoes. the prototype microarray design used here targeted the non-structural protein 5, ribosomal rna, and cytochrome b genes for the detection of flaviviruses, mosquitoes, and bloodmeals, respectively. we identified 13 of ... | 2012 | 23249687 |
| detection of japanese encephalitis virus genotype v in culex orientalis and culex pipiens (diptera: culicidae) in korea. | japanese encephalitis virus (jev) causes significant viral encephalitis and is distributed throughout the asian countries. the virus is known to be transmitted by culex tritaeniorhynchus, which mainly breeds in rice paddies in korea. in this study, we investigated the presence of other mosquito species that can transmit jev as a second or regional vector. we selected five cities where patients have experienced je in the last 5 years as mosquito-collecting locations and subdivided them into four ... | 2015 | 25658839 |
| flavidb: a data mining system for knowledge discovery in flaviviruses with direct applications in immunology and vaccinology. | the flavivirus genus is unusually large, comprising more than 70 species, of which more than half are known human pathogens. it includes a set of clinically relevant infectious agents such as dengue, west nile, yellow fever, and japanese encephalitis viruses. although these pathogens have been studied extensively, safe and efficient vaccines lack for the majority of the flaviviruses. | 0 | 25544857 |
| detection of quang binh virus from mosquitoes in china. | flaviviruses present a wide range of genetic diversity and exhibit diverse host relationships. mosquito-borne flaviviruses have recently been isolated and characterized worldwide. yunnan province of china is one of the richest areas of species diversity and is the center of multi-species evolution in mainland asia, which supports the circulation of numerous arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses). in a screening program of arboviruses, mosquitoes were collected during the mosquito activity season ... | 2014 | 24342141 |
| distribution and mosquito hosts of chaoyang virus, a newly reported flavivirus from the republic of korea, 2008-2011. | in total, 183,602 female culicine mosquitoes were captured by mosquito magnet, black light, and new jersey light traps, and manual aspiration of resting blood-fed mosquitoes, in the republic of korea from 2008 to 2011. culicine mosquitoes were identified to species, placed in pools of up to 30 mosquitoes each, and screened for flavivirus rna by using an sybr green i-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. thirty-two of the 8,199 pools assayed were positive by quantitative po ... | 2014 | 24724298 |
| isolation and genomic characterization of chaoyang virus strain rok144 from aedes vexans nipponii from the republic of korea. | during june 2003, mosquito surveillance was conducted at a us army installation and a us military training site 2 km south of the demilitarized zone, republic of korea. mosquitoes were collected using mosquito magnets™, sorted to species, and assayed for the presence of arboviruses. from the 3,149 mosquitoes that were sorted into 126 pools, one aedes vexans nipponii pool (out of 73 pools) tested positive for flavivirus rna by reverse transcription-pcr. after isolation from c6/36 cell culture sup ... | 2013 | 23127596 |
| barkedji virus, a novel mosquito-borne flavivirus identified in culex perexiguus mosquitoes, israel, 2011. | barkedji virus, named after the area of its first identification in senegal, is a newly discovered flavivirus (fv), for which we propose the abbreviation bjv. in the present study, we report the first-time detection of bjv in culex perexiguus mosquitoes in israel in 2011 and determination of its almost complete polyprotein gene sequence. we characterized the bjv genome and defined putative mature proteins, conserved structural elements and potential enzyme motifs along the polyprotein precursor. ... | 2013 | 23939978 |