Interspecies Transmission, Genetic Diversity, and Evolutionary Dynamics of Pseudorabies Virus.
Wanting He1
Lisa Zoé Auclert2
Xiaofeng Zhai1
Gary Wong2,3,4
Cheng Zhang1
Henan Zhu5
Gang Xing6
Shilei Wang1
Wei He1
Kemang Li1
Liang Wang4
Guan-Zhu Han7
Michael Veit8
Jiyong Zhou6
Shuo Su1
Affiliations8 institutions
MOE International Joint Collaborative Research Laboratory for Animal Health & Food Safety, Jiangsu Engineering Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Institute of Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University.
College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Hangzhou.
CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, United Kingdom.
Département de Microbiologie-Infectiologie et d'Immunologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Key laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou.
Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Institute for Virology, Center for Infection Medicine, Veterinary Faculty, Free University Berlin, Germany.
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) causes Aujeszky's disease in pigs and can be transmitted to other mammals, including humans. In the current study, we systematically studied the interspecies transmission and evolutionary history of PRV. We performed comprehensive analysis on the phylodynamics, selection, and structural biology to summarize the phylogenetic and adaptive evolution of PRV based on all available full-length and major glycoprotein sequences. PRV can be divided into 2 main clades with frequent interclade and intraclade recombination. Clade 2.2 (variant PRV) is currently the most prevalent genotype worldwide, and most commonly involved in cross-species transmission events (including humans). We also found that the population size of clade 2.2 has increased since 2011, and the effective reproduction number was >1 from 2011 to 2016, indicating that PRV may be still circulating in swine herds and is still a risk in relation with cross-species transmission in China. Of note, we identified amino acid sites in some important glycoproteins gB, gC, gD, and gE that may be associated with PRV adaptation to new hosts and immune escape to vaccines. Our study provides important genetic insight into the interspecies transmission and evolution of PRV within and between different hosts that warrant additional surveillance.
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) causes Aujeszky's disease in pigs and can be transmitted to other mammals, including humans. In the current study, we systematically studied the interspecies transmission and evolutionary history of PRV.
Phylogenetic and phylodynamic analyses of full-length and glycoprotein sequences of Pseudorabies virus revealed two major clades with recombination and identified glycoprotein sites potentially linked to host adaptation and immune escape.
We performed comprehensive analysis on the phylodynamics, selection, and structural biology to summarize the phylogenetic and adaptive evolution of PRV based on all available full-length and major glycoprotein sequences. PRV can be divided into 2 main clades with frequent interclade and intraclade recombination. Of note, we identified amino acid sites in some important glycoproteins gB, gC, gD, and gE that may be associated with PRV adaptation to new hosts and immune escape to vaccines.
Of note, we identified amino acid sites in some important glycoproteins gB, gC, gD, and gE that may be associated with PRV adaptation to new hosts and immune escape to vaccines.
Genes or proteins
gB; gC; gD; gE
Mechanism types
host_adaptation; immune_escape
Recombination Or Reassortment1 records
Recombination Or ReassortmentExtraction confidence 0.90
Key finding
Frequent interclade and intraclade recombination in Pseudorabies virus are associated with emergence of variant Clade 2.2 linked to cross-species transmission from swine to humans.
PRV can be divided into 2 main clades with frequent interclade and intraclade recombination. Clade 2.2 (variant PRV) is currently the most prevalent genotype worldwide, and most commonly involved in cross-species transmission events (including humans).
Event type
recombination
Spillover Event1 records
Spillover EventExtraction confidence 0.85
Key finding
PRV has been documented to transmit from pigs to humans, demonstrating an animal-to-human spillover event.
