Browsing by Author "Oestereich, Lisa"

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    "Gairovirus,anovelarena virusof the widespread Mastomys natalensis: genetically divergent,but ecologically similar to Lassa and Morogoro viruses
    (ElsevierInc, 2015) Gryseels, Sophie; Rieger, Toni; Oestereich, Lisa; Cuypers, Bart; Borremans, Benny; Makundi, Rhodes; Leirs, Herwig; Günther, Stephan; Goüy de Bellocq, Joëlle
    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.