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Journal of Virology, September 2001, p. 8096-8104, Vol. 75, No. 17
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.17.8096-8104.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Host Switching in Lyssavirus History from the Chiroptera to the Carnivora Orders

Hassan Badrane and Noël Tordo*

Laboratoire des Lyssavirus, Department of Virology, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Received 26 March 2001/Accepted 5 June 2001

Lyssaviruses are unsegmented RNA viruses causing rabies. Their vectors belong to the Carnivora and Chiroptera orders. We studied 36 carnivoran and 17 chiropteran lyssaviruses representing the main genotypes and variants. We compared their genes encoding the surface glycoprotein, which is responsible for receptor recognition and membrane fusion. The glycoprotein is the main protecting antigen and bears virulence determinants. Point mutation is the main force in lyssavirus evolution, as Sawyer's test and phylogenetic analysis showed no evidence of recombination. Tests of neutrality indicated a neutral model of evolution, also supported by globally high ratios of synonymous substitutions (dS) to nonsynonymous substitutions (dN) (>7). Relative-rate tests suggested similar rates of evolution for all lyssavirus lineages. Therefore, the absence of recombination and similar evolutionary rates make phylogeny-based conclusions reliable. Phylogenetic reconstruction strongly supported the hypothesis that host switching occurred in the history of lyssaviruses. Indeed, lyssaviruses evolved in chiropters long before the emergence of carnivoran rabies, very likely following spillovers from bats. Using dated isolates, the average rate of evolution was estimated to be roughly 4.3 × 10-4 dS/site/year. Consequently, the emergence of carnivoran rabies from chiropteran lyssaviruses was determined to have occurred 888 to 1,459 years ago. Glycoprotein segments accumulating more dN than dS were distinctly detected in carnivoran and chiropteran lyssaviruses. They may have contributed to the adaptation of the virus to the two distinct mammal orders. In carnivoran lyssaviruses they overlapped the main antigenic sites, II and III, whereas in chiropteran lyssaviruses they were located in regions of unknown functions.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut Pasteur, Laboratoire des Lyssavirus, 25, rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. Phone: (33) 1-40613134. Fax: (33) 1-40613256. E-mail: ntordo{at}pasteur.fr.

Journal of Virology, September 2001, p. 8096-8104, Vol. 75, No. 17
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.17.8096-8104.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.