Isolation of a novel herpesvirus from a Pacific white-sided dolphin

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 158; no. 3; pp. 695 - 699
• Main Authors: Noguchi, Keita, Shimoda, Hiroshi, Terada, Yutaka, Shimojima, Masayuki, Kohyama, Kaoru, Inoshima, Yasuo, Maeda, Ken
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.03.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alphaherpesvirinae; Alphaherpesvirinae - classification; Alphaherpesvirinae - genetics; Alphaherpesvirinae - isolation & purification; Alphaherpesvirus; Amino acids; Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brief Report; Cell culture; Cells, Cultured; Cetacea; classification; Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral; cytopathogenicity; DNA polymerase; dolphins; Dolphins & porpoises; Dolphins - virology; genes; genetics; Glycoproteins; Glycoproteins - genetics; Herpes viruses; Herpesviridae Infections; Herpesviridae Infections - veterinary; Herpesviridae Infections - virology; Herpesvirus; Infectious Diseases; isolation & purification; kidneys; Lagenorhynchus; Lagenorhynchus obliquidens; Marine; Medical Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; nucleotide sequences; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Polymerase chain reaction; Proteins; sequence analysis; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Tursiops truncatus; United States; Varicellovirus; veterinary; Veterinary medicine; Viral Envelope Proteins; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Virology; viruses; United States > US; Japan; USA; I, Pacific; United States; Harbor Porpoise; Bottlenose Dolphin; Inverse Polymerase Chain Reaction; Primary Cell Culture; Consensus Primer
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-012-1536-z

During establishment of primary cell culture from the kidney of a dead Pacific white-sided dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus obliquidens ), a cytopathic effect was observed. Polymerase chain reaction with a set of herpesvirus consensus primers yielded a fragment of the expected size. Nucleotide sequencing of the product indicated that the isolated virus was closely related to an alphaherpesvirus detected in a bottlenose dolphin in the United States, but the sequence identity at the protein level was low (86.6 %). Phylogenetic analysis of the encoded sequence confirmed that the new isolate belonged to the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and clustered together with other cetacean alphaherpesviruses. The complete gene encoding glycoprotein B (2,757 bp) was amplified from the novel isolate; the encoded protein was compared with the corresponding protein of other herpesviruses, revealing that this virus belongs to the genus Varicellovirus . Taken together, these results suggest that this virus corresponds to a novel herpesvirus capable of infecting Pacific white-sided dolphins.