Possible Roles of New Mutations Shared by Asian and American Zika Viruses

Originating in Africa, the Zika virus (ZIKV) has spread to Asia, Pacific Islands and now to the Americas and beyond. Since the first isolation in 1947, ZIKV strains have been sampled at various times in the last 69 years, but this history has not been reflected in studying the patterns of mutation a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMolecular biology and evolution Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 525 - 534
Main Authors Yokoyama, Shozo, Starmer, William T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Oxford University Press 01.03.2017
Subjects
Animals
Biological Evolution
Evolution, Molecular
Fast Track
Genome, Viral
Humans
Insect Vectors
Inverted Repeat Sequences
Mutation
Mutation Rate
Phylogeny
Phylogeography - legislation & jurisprudence
Phylogeography - methods
RNA Stability
RNA, Viral - genetics
Structure-Activity Relationship
Zika Virus - genetics
Zika Virus Infection - virology
Zika viruses
evolutionary rates
RNA structures
evolutionary tree
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Summary:Originating in Africa, the Zika virus (ZIKV) has spread to Asia, Pacific Islands and now to the Americas and beyond. Since the first isolation in 1947, ZIKV strains have been sampled at various times in the last 69 years, but this history has not been reflected in studying the patterns of mutation accumulation in their genomes. Implementing the viral history, we show that the ZIKV ancestor appeared sometime in 1930-1945 and, at that point, its mutation rate was probably less than 0.2 × 10-3/nucleotide site/year and subsequently increased significantly in most of its descendants. Sustaining a high mutation rate of 4 × 10-3/site/year throughout its evolution, the Ancestral Asian strain, which was sampled from a mosquito in Malaysia, accumulated 13 mutations in the 3'-untranslated region of RNA stem-loops prior to 1963, seven of which generate more stable stem-loop structures and are likely to inhibit cellular antiviral activities, including immune and RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. The seven mutations have been maintained in all Asian and American strains and may be responsible for serious medical problems we are facing today and offer testable hypotheses to examine their roles in molecular interactions during brain development.
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ISSN:0737-4038
1537-1719
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msw270