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Journal of Virology, August 2007, p. 8091-8100, Vol. 81, No. 15
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.00255-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification of Novel Rodent Herpesviruses, Including the First Gammaherpesvirus of Mus musculus{triangledown}

Bernhard Ehlers,1* Judit Küchler,1 Nezlisah Yasmum,1 Güzin Dural,1 Sebastian Voigt,2 Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit,3,{dagger} Thomas Jäkel,4 Franz-Rainer Matuschka,5 Dania Richter,5 Sandra Essbauer,6 David J. Hughes,7 Candice Summers,8 Malcolm Bennett,8 James P. Stewart,7 and Rainer G. Ulrich3,{ddagger}

P14 Molekulare Genetik und Epidemiologie von Herpesviren, Robert Koch-Institut, Berlin, Germany,1 FG12 Virale Infektionen, Robert Koch-Institut, Berlin, Germany,2 Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Institute of Epidemiology, Wusterhausen, Germany,3 German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), GTZ Office Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand,4 Institut für Pathologie, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany,5 Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Infektions- und Seuchenmedizin, Munich, Germany,6 Division of Medical Microbiology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom,7 Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom8

Received 6 February 2007/ Accepted 7 May 2007

Rodent herpesviruses such as murine cytomegalovirus (host, Mus musculus), rat cytomegalovirus (host, Rattus norvegicus), and murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (hosts, Apodemus species) are important tools for the experimental study of human herpesvirus diseases. However, alphaherpesviruses, roseoloviruses, and lymphocryptoviruses, as well as rhadinoviruses, that naturally infect Mus musculus (house mouse) and other Old World mice are unknown. To identify hitherto-unknown rodent-associated herpesviruses, we captured M. musculus, R. norvegicus, and 14 other rodent species in several locations in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Thailand. Samples of trigeminal ganglia, dorsal root ganglia, brains, spleens, and other organs, as well as blood, were analyzed with a degenerate panherpesvirus PCR targeting the DNA polymerase (DPOL) gene. Herpesvirus-positive samples were subjected to a second degenerate PCR targeting the glycoprotein B (gB) gene. The sequences located between the partial DPOL and gB sequences were amplified by long-distance PCR and sequenced, resulting in a contiguous sequence of approximately 3.5 kbp. By DPOL PCR, we detected 17 novel betaherpesviruses and 21 novel gammaherpesviruses but no alphaherpesvirus. Of these 38 novel herpesviruses, 14 were successfully analyzed by the complete bigenic approach. Most importantly, the first gammaherpesvirus of Mus musculus was discovered (Mus musculus rhadinovirus 1 [MmusRHV1]). This virus is a member of a novel group of rodent gammaherpesviruses, which is clearly distinct from murine herpesvirus 68-like rodent gammaherpesviruses. Multigenic phylogenetic analysis, using an 8-kbp locus, revealed that MmusRHV1 diverged from the other gammaherpesviruses soon after the evolutionary separation of Epstein-Barr virus-like lymphocryptoviruses from human herpesvirus 8-like rhadinoviruses and alcelaphine herpesvirus 1-like macaviruses.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Robert Koch-Institut, Nordufer 20, D-13353 Berlin, Germany. Phone: 4918887542347. Fax: 4918887542598. E-mail: ehlersb{at}rki.de

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 16 May 2007.

{dagger} Present address: Institut für Medizinische Virologie, Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

{ddagger} Present address: Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Institute for Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany.

Journal of Virology, August 2007, p. 8091-8100, Vol. 81, No. 15
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.00255-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Ehlers, B., Dural, G., Yasmum, N., Lembo, T., de Thoisy, B., Ryser-Degiorgis, M.-P., Ulrich, R. G., McGeoch, D. J. (2008). Novel Mammalian Herpesviruses and Lineages within the Gammaherpesvirinae: Cospeciation and Interspecies Transfer. J. Virol. 82: 3509-3516 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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