Positive Selection Results in Frequent Reversible Amino Acid Replacements in the G Protein Gene of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus: e1000254

Positive Selection Results in Frequent Reversible Amino Acid Replacements in the G Protein Gene of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus e1000254

Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children under 5 years of age and the elderly, causing annual disease outbreaks during the fall and winter. Multiple lineages of the HRSVA and HRSVB serotypes co-circulate within a single outbreak an...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS pathogens Vol. 5; no. 1
Main Authors: Botosso, Viviane F, Zanotto, M deA, Ueda, Mirthes, Arruda, Eurico, Gilio, Alfredo E, Vieira, Sandra E, Stewien, Klaus E, Peret, Teresa CT, Jamal, Leda F, Pardini, de MC, Pinho, João RR, Massad, Eduardo, Holmes, Eddie C, Durigon, Edison L, Consortium, the VGDN
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 01-01-2009
Subjects:
Amino acids
Binding sites
Evolution
Evolution & development
Genes
Genetic diversity
Phylogenetics
Population
Proteins
Brazil
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children under 5 years of age and the elderly, causing annual disease outbreaks during the fall and winter. Multiple lineages of the HRSVA and HRSVB serotypes co-circulate within a single outbreak and display a strongly temporal pattern of genetic variation, with a replacement of dominant genotypes occurring during consecutive years. In the present study we utilized phylogenetic methods to detect and map sites subject to adaptive evolution in the G protein of HRSVA and HRSVB. A total of 29 and 23 amino acid sites were found to be putatively positively selected in HRSVA and HRSVB, respectively. Several of these sites defined genotypes and lineages within genotypes in both groups, and correlated well with epitopes previously described in group A. Remarkably, 18 of these positively selected tended to revert in time to a previous codon state, producing a "flip-flop" phylogenetic pattern. Such frequent evolutionary reversals in HRSV are indicative of a combination of frequent positive selection, reflecting the changing immune status of the human population, and a limited repertoire of functionally viable amino acids at specific amino acid sites.
ISSN:1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000254