Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses EEHV1A, EEHV1B, and EEHV2 from cases of hemorrhagic disease are highly diverged from other mammalian herpesviruses and may form a new subfamily.

ABSTRACT:

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A family of novel endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHVs) assigned to the genus Proboscivirus have been identified as the cause of fatal hemorrhagic disease in 70 young Asian elephants worldwide. Although EEHV cannot be grown in cell culture, we have determined a total of 378 kb of viral genomic DNA sequence directly from clinical tissue samples from six lethal cases and two survivors. Overall, the data obtained encompass 57 genes, including orthologues of 32 core genes common to all herpesviruses, 14 genes found in some other herpesviruses, plus 10 novel genes, including a single large putative transcriptional regulatory protein (ORF-L). On the basis of differences in gene content and organization plus phylogenetic analyses of conserved core proteins that have just 20% t

SUBMITTER: Richman LK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4248956 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature