Recombination patterns in aphthoviruses mirror those found in other picornaviruses.

ABSTRACT: Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is thought to evolve largely through genetic drift driven by the inherently error-prone nature of its RNA polymerase. There is, however, increasing evidence that recombination is an important mechanism in the evolution of these and other related picornoviruses. Here, we use an extensive set of recombination detection methods to identify 86 unique potential recombination events among 125 publicly available FMDV complete genome sequences. The large number of events detected between members of different serotypes suggests that horizontal flow of sequences among the serotypes is relatively common and does not incur severe fitness costs. Interestingly, the distribution of recombination breakpoints was found to be largely nonrandom. Whereas there are clear bre

SUBMITTER: Heath L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1642601 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature