"Gairovirus,anovelarena virusof the widespread Mastomys natalensis: genetically divergent,but ecologically similar to Lassa and Morogoro viruses
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ElsevierInc
Abstract
Despite itsnearpan-Africanrange,theNatalmultimammatemouse, Mastomysnatalensis, carriesthe
human pathogenLassavirusonlyinWestAfrica,whiletheseeminglynon-pathogenicarenaviruses
Mopeia, Morogoro,andLunahavebeendetectedinthissemi-commensalrodentinMozambique/
Zimbabwe,TanzaniaandZambia,respectively.Here,wedescribeanovelarenavirusin M. natalensis from
Gairo districtofcentralTanzania,forwhichweproposethename “Gairo virus”. Surprisingly,thevirusis
not closelyrelatedwithMorogorovirusthatinfects M. natalensis only 90kmsouthofGairo,butclusters
phylogeneticallywithMobala-likevirusesthatinfectnon-M. natalensis host speciesinCentralAfrican
RepublicandEthiopia.Despitetheevolutionarydistance,Gairovirussharesbasicecologicalfeatures
with theother M. natalensis-borne virusesLassaandMorogoro.Ourdatashowthat M. natalensis,
carrying distantlyrelatedviruseseveninthesamegeographicalarea,isapotentreservoirhostfora
varietyofarenaviruses.
Description
Keywords
Arenavirus, Mastomys natalensis, Virology, Phylogeny, Ecology, Zoonotic infections, Hemorrhagic fevers, Tanzania