New tick-borne encephalitis virus strains isolated in Eastern Siberia (Russia) in 1960-2011

What is it about?

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is one of the main tick-borne viral pathogens of humans. Infection may induce signs of meningitis, encephalitis, paralysis and high fever. TBEV is well studied by molecular phylogenetic methods. The present-day implementation of Bayesian phylogenetic models allows population dynamics to be tracked, providing changes in population size that were not directly observed. However, the description of the past population dynamics of TBEV is rare in the literature. In our investigation, we provide data on the dynamics of viral genetic diversity of TBEV in Zabaikalsky Krai (Eastern Siberia, Russia) revealed by the Bayesian coalescent inference in a BEAST program. As a data set, we used the envelope (E) protein partial gene sequences (1308 nt) of 38 TBEV strains (including six “886−84-like” or Baikalian subtype strains (TBEV-B)), isolated in Zabaikalsky Krai (Eastern Siberia, Russia) in 1960–1963 and 1995–2011. To increase estimations reliability, we compared 9 model combinations by Path sampling and Stepping-stone sampling methods. It has been shown that the genetic diversity decline in the population history of TBEV in the 1950s coincides with the date of the beginning of wide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane forest dusting in Siberia. We assumed that the TBEV population on the territory of Siberia went through a genetic bottleneck. Also, we provide data estimating the divergence time of TBEV-B strains and indicate the specific evolution rate of an ancestor lineage of the Baikalian subtype, illustrated on a phylogenetic tree, and reconstructed under a relaxed clock model.

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