Journal article
Characterization of a filovirus (Měnglà virus) from Rousettus bats in China
XL Yang, CW Tan, DE Anderson, RD Jiang, B Li, W Zhang, Y Zhu, XF Lim, P Zhou, XL Liu, W Guan, L Zhang, SY Li, YZ Zhang, LF Wang, ZL Shi
Nature Microbiology | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2019
Abstract
Filoviruses, especially Ebola virus (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV), are notoriously pathogenic and capable of causing severe haemorrhagic fever diseases in humans with high lethality1,2. The risk of future outbreaks is exacerbated by the discovery of other bat-borne filoviruses of wide genetic diversity globally3–5. Here we report the characterization of a phylogenetically distinct bat filovirus, named Měnglà virus (MLAV). The coding-complete genome of MLAV shares 32–54% nucleotide sequence identity with known filoviruses. Phylogenetic analysis places this new virus between EBOV and MARV, suggesting the need for a new genus taxon. Importantly, despite the low amino acid sequence identity (2..
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Awarded by Ministry of Defence, Singapore
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by the strategic priority research programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (no. XDB29010000 to Z-L.S.), Singapore National Research Foundation grants (nos. NRF2012NRF-CRP001-056 and NRF2016NRF-NSFC002-013 to L.-F.W.) and a Singapore MINDEF grant (no. MINDEF-NUS-DIRP/2015/04 to L.-F.W. and D.E.A.). X.L.Y. is supported by the Visiting Scientist Fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We thank T. Hoenen and H. Feldmann for providing plasmids from which the relevant EBOV genes were derived for this study.