Whole-Genome Sequencing Analysis from the Chikungunya Virus Caribbean Outbreak Reveals Novel Evolutionary Genomic Elements.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an alphavirus and member of the Togaviridae family, is capable of causing severe febrile disease in humans. In December of 2013 the Asian Lineage of CHIKV spread from the Old World to the Americas, spreading rapidly throughout the New World. Given this new emergence in naïve populations we studied the viral genetic diversity present in infected individuals to understand how CHIKV may have evolved during this continuing outbreak.

Methodology/principle findings

We used deep-sequencing technologies coupled with well-established bioinformatics pipelines to characterize the minority variants and diversity present in CHIKV infected individuals from Guadeloupe and Martinique, two islands in the center of the epidemic. We observed changes in the

SUBMITTER: Stapleford KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726740 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature