TY - JOUR
T1 - Expression and evolutionary analysis of West Nile virus (Merion Strain)
AU - Ramanathan, Mathura P.
AU - Chambers, Jerome A.
AU - Taylor, Jesse
AU - Korber, Bette T.
AU - Lee, Mark D.
AU - Nalca, Aysegul
AU - Dang, Kesan
AU - Pankhong, Panyupa
AU - Attatippaholkun, Watcharee
AU - Weiner, David B.
PY - 2005/12/1
Y1 - 2005/12/1
N2 - The authors report a new strain of West Nile virus (WNV) with the expression analysis of its individual open reading frames. Since its sudden appearance in the summer of 1999 in New York City, the virus has spread rapidly across the continental United States into Canada and Mexico. Besides, its rapid transmission by various vectors, the spread of this virus through organ transplantation, blood transfusion, and mother-child transmission through breast milk is of concern. In order to understand molecular variations of WNV in North America and to generate new tools for understanding WNV biology, a complete clone of WNV has been constructed. Investigations so far have focused only on half of its genes products and a detailed molecular and cell biological aspects on all of WNV gene have yet to be clearly established. The open reading frames of WNV were recovered through an reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-PCR using brain tissue from a dead crow collected in Merion, PA, and cloned into a mammalian expression vector. The deduced amino acid sequences of individual open reading frames were analyzed to determine various structural motifs and functional domains. Expression analysis shows that in neuronal cells, C, NS1, and NS5 proteins are nuclear localized whereas the rest of the antigens are confined to the cytoplasm when they are expressed in the absence of other viral antigens. This is the first report that provides an expression analysis as well as intracellular distribution pattern for all of WNV gene products, cloned from an infected bird. Evolutionary analysis of Merion strain sequences indicates that this strain is distinct phylogenetically from the previously reported WNV strains.
AB - The authors report a new strain of West Nile virus (WNV) with the expression analysis of its individual open reading frames. Since its sudden appearance in the summer of 1999 in New York City, the virus has spread rapidly across the continental United States into Canada and Mexico. Besides, its rapid transmission by various vectors, the spread of this virus through organ transplantation, blood transfusion, and mother-child transmission through breast milk is of concern. In order to understand molecular variations of WNV in North America and to generate new tools for understanding WNV biology, a complete clone of WNV has been constructed. Investigations so far have focused only on half of its genes products and a detailed molecular and cell biological aspects on all of WNV gene have yet to be clearly established. The open reading frames of WNV were recovered through an reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-PCR using brain tissue from a dead crow collected in Merion, PA, and cloned into a mammalian expression vector. The deduced amino acid sequences of individual open reading frames were analyzed to determine various structural motifs and functional domains. Expression analysis shows that in neuronal cells, C, NS1, and NS5 proteins are nuclear localized whereas the rest of the antigens are confined to the cytoplasm when they are expressed in the absence of other viral antigens. This is the first report that provides an expression analysis as well as intracellular distribution pattern for all of WNV gene products, cloned from an infected bird. Evolutionary analysis of Merion strain sequences indicates that this strain is distinct phylogenetically from the previously reported WNV strains.
KW - Merion strain
KW - Phylogenetic analysis
KW - WNV antigens
KW - WNV pathogenesis
KW - West Nile virus
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U2 - 10.1080/13550280500385229
DO - 10.1080/13550280500385229
M3 - Article
C2 - 16338748
AN - SCOPUS:31144450049
SN - 1355-0284
VL - 11
SP - 544
EP - 556
JO - Journal of NeuroVirology
JF - Journal of NeuroVirology
IS - 6
ER -