Fu Yu, Pan Meng, Wang Xiaoyan, Xu Yongliang, Xie Xiaoyu, Knowles Nick J, Yang Hanchun, Zhang Dabing
Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, PR China.
Institute for Animal Health, Pirbright Laboratory, Ash Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey GU24 0NF, UK.
J Gen Virol. 2009 May;90(Pt 5):1104-1108. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.008599-0. Epub 2009 Mar 4.
Duck astroviruses (DAstVs) are known to cause duck viral hepatitis; however, little is known regarding their molecular biology. Here, we report the complete sequence of a DAstV associated with a recent outbreak of fatal hepatitis in ducklings in China. Sequence analyses indicated that the genome of DAstV possessed a typical astrovirus organization and also exhibited two unique features. The polyadenylated genome comprised 7722 nt, which is the largest among astroviruses sequenced to date. The ORF2 of DAstV was not in the same reading frame as either ORF1a or ORF1b, which was distinct from all other astroviruses. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses revealed that DAstV was more closely related to turkey astrovirus (TAstV) type 2, TAstV-3 and TAstV/MN/01 (a possible new TAstV serotype) than to TAstV-1 or other astroviruses. These findings suggest that astroviruses may transmit across ducks and turkeys.
鸭星状病毒（DAstVs）已知可引起鸭病毒性肝炎；然而，关于它们的分子生物学却知之甚少。在此，我们报告了一种与中国近期雏鸭致命性肝炎暴发相关的DAstV的完整序列。序列分析表明，DAstV的基因组具有典型的星状病毒结构，并且还表现出两个独特特征。多聚腺苷酸化的基因组由7722个核苷酸组成，这是迄今为止测序的星状病毒中最大的。DAstV的ORF2与ORF1a或ORF1b不在同一阅读框内，这与所有其他星状病毒不同。序列比较和系统发育分析表明，DAstV与2型火鸡星状病毒（TAstV）、TAstV-3和TAstV/MN/01（一种可能的新型TAstV血清型）的亲缘关系比与TAstV-1或其他星状病毒更近。这些发现表明星状病毒可能在鸭和火鸡之间传播。
