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Short Communication |
1 Unité des Virus Emergents (EA3292, IFR48, IRD UR0178), Faculté de Médecine La Timone, 27 boulevard Jean Moulin, 13005 Marseille, France
2 IRD UR0178, Conditions et Territoires d'Emergence des Maladies, BP 1386, 18524 Dakar, Senegal
3 IRD UR0178, Mahidol University, Research Center for Emerging Viral Diseases/Center for Vaccine Development Institute of Sciences, Salaya, 25/25 Phutthamonthon 4, Nakhonpathom 73170, Thailand
4 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
5 Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, BP 769 Franceville, Gabon
6 Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA
7 Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Correspondence
Gilda Grard
gilda.grard{at}gulliver.fr
By using degenerate primers deduced from conserved patterns in the flavivirus polymerase gene, a novel RNA virus was discovered in Rhipicephalus ticks sampled from members of the family Bovidae in Senegal. It was named Ngoye virus (NGOV) after the location from which it was isolated. Viral particles could be observed by electron microscopy, but isolation in vertebrate or invertebrate cell lines or by intracerebral infection of newborn mice remained unsuccessful. This is atypical of recognized arboviruses. The characterization of 4176 nt of the non-structural genes revealed that NGOV is a novel flavivirus species. It forms a distinct phylogenetic lineage related distantly to previously identified members of the genus Flavivirus. Analysis of genetic data suggested that the processing of the NGOV polyprotein and the organization of its replication complex are similar to those of flaviviruses. Together with other recent data, these findings suggest that a large number of viruses related distantly to classical arthropod-borne flaviviruses remain to be discovered.
The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the sequence reported in this paper is DQ400858.
A supplementary figure showing electron micrographs of Ngoye virus is available in JGV Online.
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