Culex flavivirus isolates from mosquitoes in Guatemala

J Med Entomol. 2008 Nov;45(6):1187-90. doi: 10.1603/0022-2585(2008)45[1187:cfifmi]2.0.co;2.

Abstract

A new strain of Culex flavivirus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, CxFV), an insect virus first described in Japan, was isolated from adult Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) collected in 2006 from Izabal Department on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. Mosquito pools were assayed for flavivirus RNA by using flavivirus group-specific primers that amplified a 720-bp region of the nonstructural (NS) 5 gene by standard reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. From 210 pools (1,699 mosquitoes), eight tested positive, and six of these mosquito pools produced virus isolates in Aedes albopictus Skuse C6/36 cells. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the eight flavivirus RNA-positive pools showed that there was 100% identity among them, and phylogenetic analysis of the NS5 and envelope gene regions indicated that they represent a strain of the recently described CxFV from Japan. This is the first report of an insect flavivirus from Central America.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Culex / virology*
  • Female
  • Flavivirus / genetics
  • Flavivirus / isolation & purification*
  • Guatemala
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Viral / genetics
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Viral Envelope Proteins / genetics
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • RNA, Viral
  • Viral Envelope Proteins
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins

Associated data

  • GENBANK/EU805805
  • GENBANK/EU805806