Page Title:
Molecular Evolution of Zika Virus during Its Emergence in the 20th Century | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Page Description:
Author Summary Zika fever is a mosquito-borne illness caused by a flavivirus. Human infections with Zika virus (ZIKV) could cause fever, malaise and cutaneous rash. Despite several ZIKV reports since 1947 when it was first isolated at Zika forest in Uganda, molecular evolution of ZIKV as an emerging agent remains poorly understood. Moreover, despite several ZIKV reports from Africa and Asia, few human cases were notified until 2007 when an epidemic took place in Micronesia. In West Africa, surveillance programs have reported periodic circulation of the virus since 1968. To help fill the gap in understanding ZIKV evolution, 43 ZIKV samples were analyzed. We focused on: (i) adaptive genetic changes including protein glycosylation patterns, (ii) phylogenetic relationship among isolates and their spatiotemporal patterns of spread across Africa and Asia and, (iii) dispersion among vertebrate reservoirs and invertebrate vector species. Our results indicated that ZIKV may have experienced recombination in nature and that, after it emerged from Uganda in the early of the 20th century, it moved to West Africa and Asia in the first half of the century, without any clear preference for host and vector species.

This Page is About:
Glycosylation,Zika virus,Phylogenetic analysis,Phylogenetics,Zika fever,Recombinant proteins,Animal phylogenetics,Mosquitoes