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Title: Mosaic Structure of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Genomes

Author
item JACKSON, A. - UNIV GLASGOW, UK
item VAN RENSBURG, H. - UNIV CAPE TOWN, S.AFRICA
item CARRILLO, CONSUELO - USDA, APHIS, PIADC
item Rodriguez, Luis
item HAYDON, D. - UNIV GLASGOW, UK

Submitted to: Journal of General Virology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2006
Publication Date: 2/1/2007
Citation: Jackson, A.L., Van Rensburg, H., Carrillo, C., Rodriguez, L.L., Haydon, D. 2007. Mosaic Structure of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Genomes. Journal of General Virology. 88(Pt 2: 487-92.

Interpretive Summary: Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes devastating disease in farm animals. The highly variable nature of its genome has resulted in the existence of at least seven distinct serotypes and dozens of subtypes in different parts of the world that require type and subtype specific vaccines. The mechanisms of evolution of this virus are not clearly understood. In this manuscript we take advantage of a large number of complete genomic sequences recently deposited in GenBank by ARS-USDA to analyze the potential for recombination between FMDV serotypes. We found that parts of the genome, particularly in the non-structural protein regions, readily recombine among serotypes particularly those widely distributed (e.g. serotypes A and O; O and Asia1) and to a lesser extent with more geographically restricted viruses (e.g. serotypes O and Sat1). The understanding of the degree of FMDV recombination will aid in developing global strategies for FMD control.

Technical Abstract: We report the results of a simple pairwise scanning analysis designed to identify inter-serotype recombination events applied to genome data from 144 isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) representing all seven serotypes. We identify large numbers of candidate recombinant fragments from all parts of the FMDV genome with the exception of the capsid genes, within which such fragments are infrequent. After accounting for the likelihood of chance intertypic convergences in highly conserved parts of the FMDV genome we conclude that intertypic recombination is widespread throughout the non-structural genes, but that recombination over the 2B/C and 3B/C gene boundaries appears to be less frequent than expected given the large numbers of recombinant gene fragments arising in these genes. As expected, intertypic fragment exchange was consistent with the geographic distribution of FMDV serotypes.