J Vet Sci.  2018 Sep;19(5):716-720. 10.4142/jvs.2018.19.5.716.

Evidence of two genetically different lymphotropic herpesviruses present among red deer, sambar, and milu herds in China

• Zhu H
• Liu H
• Yu X
• Zhang J
• Jiang L
• Chen G
• Feng Z
• Li Y
• Feng T
• Zhang X

• KMID: 2420942
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2018.19.5.716

Abstract

Herpesvirus infections in Cervidae are a serious threat affecting some deer species worldwide. In our attempt to identify malignant catarrhal fever-associated herpesviruses in deer herds, ten gammaherpesviral DNA fragments were identified in five species of deer in herds in China by using a pan-herpesvirus polymerase chain reaction assay targeting viral DNA polymerase. Notably, in sambar (Rusa unicolor), a novel gamma-2 herpesvirus was identified that showed a close relationship with fallow deer lymphotropic herpesvirus (LHV), while the other fragments were phylogenetically grouped together with Elk-LHV. Determination of whether these viruses have any clinical implication in these deer species should be undertaken urgently.

Keyword

deer species; gammaherpesvirus; phylogenetic analysis; sambar herpesvirus 1

MeSH Terms

Animals
Cattle
China*
Deer*
DNA
DNA, Viral
Herpesviridae Infections
Herpesviridae*
Malignant Catarrh
Polymerase Chain Reaction
DNA
DNA, Viral

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Pairwise identity matrix of 26 amino acid sequences of gammaherpesviruses DNA polymerase fragments. The sequence alignment was carried out by using the Clustal-Omega program and was visualized via a color-coded matrix. The color in each cell represents a percentage identity score between two sequences as indicated by the color legend in the top right of Fig. 1. GenBank accessions, virus (sample) names and/or hosts are indicated. Viruses identified in this study are shown in bold font. LHV, lymphotropic herpesvirus; MCFV, malignant catarrhal fever virus; WTD, white-tailed deer; OvHV-2, ovine herpesvirus 2; CpHV-2, caprine herpesvirus 2; AIHV-1, alcelaphine herpesvirus 1.

• 

  Fig. 2 Phylogram of 31 gammaherpesviruses based on the DNA polymerase fragments. The phylogenetic tree was constructed by using PhyML software (ver. 3.0) [6] with the JTT+G amino acid substitution model. Reliability of the tree was inferred by applying an approximate likelihood ratio test (aLRT). The aLRT values less than 0.50 were collapsed. GenBank accession, virus (sample) name and/or host are indicated in the taxon. Viruses identified in this study are shown in bold font and marked with an asterisk (*), exception for SamHV-1, which is marked with an octothorpe (#). The scale bar indicates the number of amino acid substitutions per site. BoHV-4, bovine gammaherpesvirus 4; AIHV-1, alcelaphine herpesvirus 1; MCFV, malignant catarrhal fever virus; WTD, white-tailed deer; OvHV-2, ovine herpesvirus 2; LHV, lymphotropic herpesvirus; CpHV-2, caprine herpesvirus 2.

Reference

1. Abascal F, Zardoya R, Posada D. ProtTest: selection of best-fit models of protein evolution. Bioinformatics. 2005; 21:2104–2105.

2. Ackermann M. Pathogenesis of gammaherpesvirus infections. Vet Microbiol. 2006; 113:211–222.

3. Crawford TB, Li H, Rosenburg SR, Norhausen RW, Garner MM. Mural folliculitis and alopecia caused by infection with goat-associated malignant catarrhal fever virus in two sika deer. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2002; 221:843–847.

4. Davison AJ. Evolution of the herpesviruses. Vet Microbiol. 2002; 86:69–88.

5. Ehlers B, Dural G, Yasmum N, Lembo T, de Thoisy B, Ryser-Degiorgis MP, Ulrich RG, McGeoch DJ. Novel mammalian herpesviruses and lineages within the Gammaherpesvirinae: cospeciation and interspecies transfer. J Virol. 2008; 82:3509–3516.

6. Guindon S, Dufayard JF, Lefort V, Anisimova M, Hordijk W, Gascuel O. New algorithms and methods to estimate maximum-likelihood phylogenies: assessing the performance of PhyML 3.0. Syst Biol. 2010; 59:307–321.

7. Li H, Dyer N, Keller J, Crawford TB. Newly recognized herpesvirus causing malignant catarrhal fever in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). J Clin Microbiol. 2000; 38:1313–1318.

8. Li H, Gailbreath K, Flach EJ, Taus NS, Cooley J, Keller J, Russell GC, Knowles DP, Haig DM, Oaks JL, Traul DL, Crawford TB. A novel subgroup of rhadinoviruses in ruminants. J Gen Virol. 2005; 86:3021–3026.

9. McGeoch DJ, Rixon FJ, Davison AJ. Topics in herpesvirus genomics and evolution. Virus Res. 2006; 117:90–104.

10. McKillen J, Hogg K, Lagan P, Ball C, Doherty S, Reid N, Collins L, Dick JTA. Detection of a novel gammaherpesvirus (genus Rhadinovirus) in wild muntjac deer in Northern Ireland. Arch Virol. 2017; 162:1737–1740.

11. Moore PS, Gao SJ, Dominguez G, Cesarman E, Lungu O, Knowles DM, Garber R, Pellett PE, McGeoch DJ, Chang Y. Primary characterization of a herpesvirus agent associated with Kaposi's sarcomae. J Virol. 1996; 70:549–558.

12. Muhire BM, Varsani A, Martin DP. SDT: a virus classification tool based on pairwise sequence alignment and identity calculation. PLoS One. 2014; 9:e108277.

13. Sievers F, Wilm A, Dineen D, Gibson TJ, Karplus K, Li W, Lopez R, McWilliam H, Remmert M, Söding J, Thompson JD, Higgins DG. Fast, scalable generation of high-quality protein multiple sequence alignments using Clustal Omega. Mol Syst Biol. 2011; 7:539.

14. VanDevanter DR, Warrener P, Bennett L, Schultz ER, Coulter S, Garber RL, Rose TM. Detection and analysis of diverse herpesviral species by consensus primer PCR. J Clin Microbiol. 1996; 34:1666–1671.

15. Wang N, Baldi PF, Gaut BS. Phylogenetic analysis, genome evolution and the rate of gene gain in the Herpesviridae. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2007; 43:1066–1075.