Occurrence of genetic drift and founder effect during quasispecies evolution of the VP2 and NS3/NS3A genes of bluetongue virus upon passage between sheep, cattle, and Culicoides sonorensis.

ABSTRACT: Bluetongue virus (BTV) is the cause of an insect-transmitted virus infection of ruminants that occurs throughout much of the world. Individual gene segments differ between field strains of BTV; thus, we hypothesized that key viral genes undergo genetic drift during alternating passage of BTV in its ruminant and insect hosts. To test this hypothesis, variation in the consensus sequence and quasispecies heterogeneity of the VP2 and NS3/NS3A genes of a plaque-purified strain of BTV serotype 10 was determined during alternating infection of vector Culicoides sonorensis and a sheep and calf. Consensus sequences were determined after reverse transcriptase-nested PCR amplification of viral RNA directly from ruminant blood and homogenized insects, and quasispecies heterogeneity was determined by t

SUBMITTER: Bonneau KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC115074 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature