Abstract
The family Polyomaviridae is comprised of circular double-stranded DNA viruses, several of which are associated with diseases, including cancer, in immunocompromised patients. Here we describe a novel polyomavirus recovered from the fecal microbiota of a child in Malawi, provisionally named STL polyomavirus (STLPyV). We detected STLPyV in clinical stool specimens from USA and The Gambia at up to 1% frequency. Complete genome comparisons of two STLPyV strains demonstrated 5.2% nucleotide divergence. Alternative splicing of the STLPyV early region yielded a unique form of T antigen, which we named 229T, in addition to the expected large and small T antigens. STLPyV has a mosaic genome and shares an ancestral recombinant origin with MWPyV. The discovery of STLPyV highlights a novel alternative splicing strategy and advances our understanding of the complex evolutionary history of polyomaviruses.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 295-303 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Virology |
Volume | 436 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 20 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Alternative splicing
- Polyomavirus
- Recombination
- Tumor antigen
- Virus discovery
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Virology