Communication A newly recognized hantavirus in the Asian house rat (Rattus tanezumi) in Indonesia

• Main Authors: Angelina Plyusnina, Ima-nurisa Ibrahim, Er Plyusnin, Alexander Plyusnin
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Rattus rattus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.614.383; http://vir.sgmjournals.org/content/90/1/205.full.pdf

Hantaviral sequences were recovered from the lung tissue of an Asian house rat (Rattus tanezumi) captured in Serang, Indonesia. Phylogenetic analysis of partial L, M and S segment sequences showed that they belonged to a novel hantavirus provisionally named Serang virus (SERV). Notably, SERV is distinct from the hantaviruses associated with rodents of the species Rattus: Seoul virus associated with Rattus norvegicus worldwide and Gou virus isolated from Rattus rattus in China. Instead SERV appeared more closely related to Thailand virus (THAIV) carried by the great bandicoot rat (Bandicota indica). These results suggest the possibility that SERV originated via host-switching, with a possible scenario of (pre)-THAIV ‘jumping ’ from (pre)bandicoots to rats and colonizing this new host species. Hantaviruses (genus Hantavirus, family Bunyaviridae) are negative-stranded RNA viruses with a tripartite genome consisting of large (L), medium (M) and small (S) segments (Nichol et al., 2005). The L segment encodes the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (L protein). The M segment encodes two surface glycoproteins Gn and