Genome-Scale Phylogeny of the Alphavirus Genus Suggests a Marine Origin

• Published in: Journal of Virology Vol. 86; no. 5; pp. 2729 - 2738
• Main Authors: Forrester, N. L, Palacios, G, Tesh, R. B, Savji, N, Guzman, H, Sherman, M, Weaver, S. C, Lipkin, W. I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Alphavirus; Alphavirus - classification; Alphavirus - genetics; Alphavirus - isolation & purification; Alphavirus Infections - veterinary; Alphavirus Infections - virology; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Cattle; Evolution, Molecular; Fishes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fur Seals; Genetic Diversity and Evolution; genome; Genome, Viral; Horses; Humans; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Molecular Sequence Data; nucleotide sequences; oceans; Phylogeny; Primates; Rodentia; Seawater - virology; Viral Proteins - genetics; Virology; viruses; Virus; Marine environment; Origin; Togaviridae; Alphavirus; Phylogeny; Genome
• ISSN: 0022-538X; 1098-5514
• DOI: 10.1128/JVI.05591-11

The genus Alphavirus comprises a diverse group of viruses, including some that cause severe disease. Using full-length sequences of all known alphaviruses, we produced a robust and comprehensive phylogeny of the Alphavirus genus, presenting a more complete evolutionary history of these viruses compared to previous studies based on partial sequences. Our phylogeny suggests the origin of the alphaviruses occurred in the southern oceans and spread equally through the Old and New World. Since lice appear to be involved in aquatic alphavirus transmission, it is possible that we are missing a louse-borne branch of the alphaviruses. Complete genome sequencing of all members of the genus also revealed conserved residues forming the structural basis of the E1 and E2 protein dimers.