Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1999 Oct;73(10):8196-200.
doi: 10.1128/JVI.73.10.8196-8200.1999.

Genetic reassortment of Rift Valley fever virus in nature

A A Sall  1 , P M Zanotto, O K Sene, H G Zeller, J P Digoutte, Y Thiongane, M Bouloy
Affiliations

Genetic reassortment of Rift Valley fever virus in nature

A A Sall et al. J Virol. 1999 Oct.

Abstract

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), a phlebovirus of the Bunyaviridae family, is an arthropod-borne virus which emerges periodically throughout Africa, emphasizing that it poses a major threat for animal and human populations. To assess the genetic variability of RVFV, several isolates from diverse localities of Africa were investigated by means of reverse transcription-PCR followed by direct sequencing of a region of the small (S), medium (M), and large (L) genomic segments. Phylogenetic analysis showed the existence of three major lineages corresponding to geographic variants from West Africa, Egypt, and Central-East Africa. However, incongruences detected between the L, M, and S phylogenies suggested that genetic exchange via reassortment occurred between strains from different lineages. This hypothesis, depicted by parallel phylogenies, was further confirmed by statistical tests. Our findings, which strongly suggest exchanges between strains from areas of endemicity in West and East Africa, strengthen the potential existence of a sylvatic cycle in the tropical rain forest. This also emphasizes the risk of generating uncontrolled chimeric viruses by using live attenuated vaccines in areas of endemicity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1
FIG. 1
Maximum likelihood trees for the NSs (A), G2 (B), and L (C) coding region sequences on the S, M, and L segments, respectively. Values below the different nodes indicate their robustness by 5% jacknife (indicated in boldface and italic type), maximum likelihood quartet puzzling (indicated in brackets), and bootstrapping (indicated in roman type) methods. Putative reassortant strains are boxed.
FIG. 1
FIG. 1
Maximum likelihood trees for the NSs (A), G2 (B), and L (C) coding region sequences on the S, M, and L segments, respectively. Values below the different nodes indicate their robustness by 5% jacknife (indicated in boldface and italic type), maximum likelihood quartet puzzling (indicated in brackets), and bootstrapping (indicated in roman type) methods. Putative reassortant strains are boxed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anonymous. An outbreak of Rift Valley fever, Eastern Africa, 1997–98. WHO Weekly Epidemiol Rep. 1998;73:105–112. - PubMed
    1. Arthur R R, el-Sharkawy M S, Cope S E, Botros B A, Oun S, Morrill J C, Shope R E, Hibbs R G, Darwish M A, Imam I Z. Recurrence of Rift Valley fever in Egypt. Lancet. 1993;342:1149–1150. - PubMed
    1. Bandelt H J, Dress A W. Split decomposition: a new and useful approach to phylogenetic analysis of distance data. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 1992;1:242–252. - PubMed
    1. Beaty B J, Borucki M, Farfan J, White D. Arbovirus-vector interactions: determinants of arbovirus evolution. In: Saluzzo J F, Dodet B, editors. Factors in the emergence of arbovirus disease. Paris, France: Elsevier; 1997. pp. 23–35.
    1. Boiro I, Konstaninov O K, Numerov A D. Isolement du virus de la fièvre de la vallée du Rift à partir de chéiroptères en République de Guinée. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Fil. 1987;80:62–67. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources