Asian Zika virus can acquire generic African-lineage mutations during in utero infection.

ABSTRACT: The Zika virus 2015 epidemic showed an unusual phenotype for human flaviviruses, specifically fetal infection. We previously showed that in utero inoculation with the Asian Zika virus isolated from the human sample causes persistent infection in porcine fetuses. Here, we characterized the evolution of the Asian Zika virus in the fetal brain and placenta. Interestingly, the Asian Zika virus acquired generic African lineage K101R (A408G) and R1609 K (G4932A) mutations during in utero infection. Both African mutations were nonsynonymous and had a high frequency of nearly 100% in the fetal brain. Then, we synthetically generated the wild-type Asian variant and fetal brain-specific variant with generic African-lineage K101R and R1609 K mutations. In mosquito C6/36 cells, but not i

SUBMITTER: Sabir AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10561574 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature