Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Adaptation in Different Host Environments and Existence of Quasispecies

Helmova, Renata, Honig, Vaclav, Tykalova, Hana, Palus, Martin, Bell-Sakyi, Lesley ORCID: 0000-0002-7305-0477 and Grubhoffer, Libor (2020) Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus Adaptation in Different Host Environments and Existence of Quasispecies. VIRUSES-BASEL, 12 (8). E902-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12080902

Abstract

A highly virulent strain (Hypr) of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) was serially subcultured in the mammalian porcine kidney stable (PS) and <i>Ixodes ricinus</i> tick (IRE/CTVM19) cell lines, producing three viral variants. These variants exhibited distinct plaque sizes and virulence in a mouse model. Comparing the full-genome sequences of all variants, several nucleotide changes were identified in different genomic regions. Furthermore, different sequential variants were revealed to co-exist within one sample as quasispecies. Interestingly, the above-mentioned nucleotide changes found within the whole genome sequences of the new variants were present alongside the nucleotide sequence of the parental strain, which was represented as a minority quasispecies. These observations further imply that TBEV exists as a heterogeneous population that contains virus variants pre-adapted to reproduction in different environments, probably enabling virus survival in ticks and mammals.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	TBEV, host alternation, neuroinvasiveness, genome mutation, quasispecies, flavivirus adaptation, tick cell line
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	24 Aug 2020 07:39
Last Modified:	28 Jan 2023 17:21
DOI:	10.3390/v12080902
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3098352