Tu Shin-Lin, Nakazawa Yoshinori, Gao Jinxin, Wilkins Kimberly, Gallardo-Romero Nadia, Li Yu, Emerson Ginny L, Carroll Darin S, Upton Chris
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Virus Genes. 2017 Dec;53(6):856-867. doi: 10.1007/s11262-017-1485-4. Epub 2017 Jul 6.
The genome of Eptesipoxvirus (EPTV) is the first poxvirus genome isolated from a microbat. The 176,688 nt sequence, which is believed to encompass the complete coding region of the virus, is 67% A+T and is predicted to encode 191 genes. 11 of these genes have no counterpart in GenBank and are therefore unique to EPTV. The presence of a distantly related ortholog of Vaccinia virus F5L in EPTV uncovered a link with fragmented F5L orthologs in Molluscum contagiosum virus/squirrelpox and clade II viruses. Consistent with the unique position of EPTV approximately mid-point between the orthopoxviruses and the clade II viruses, EPTV has 11 genes that are specific to the orthopoxviruses and 13 genes that are typical, if not exclusive, to the clade II poxviruses. This mosaic nature of EPTV blurs the distinction between the old description of the orthopoxvirus and clade II groups. Genome annotation and characterization failed to find any common virulence genes shared with the other poxvirus isolated from bat (pteropoxvirus); however, EPTV encodes 3 genes that may have been transferred to or from deerpox and squirrelpox viruses; 2 of these, a putative endothelin-like protein and a MHC class I-like protein are likely to have immunomodulatory roles.
埃普泰斯痘病毒（EPTV）的基因组是首个从微型蝙蝠中分离出的痘病毒基因组。该病毒基因组序列长度为176,688个核苷酸（nt），据信涵盖了病毒的完整编码区，其中A+T含量为67%，预计编码191个基因。这些基因中有11个在GenBank中没有对应物，因此是EPTV所特有的。EPTV中存在与痘苗病毒F5L远缘相关的直系同源物，这揭示了它与传染性软疣病毒/松鼠痘病毒及分支II病毒中片段化的F5L直系同源物之间的联系。与EPTV在正痘病毒和分支II病毒之间大约处于中点的独特位置一致，EPTV有11个基因是正痘病毒特有的，13个基因是分支II痘病毒所特有的（即便不是其独有的）。EPTV的这种镶嵌性质模糊了正痘病毒和分支II病毒旧有分类之间的区别。基因组注释和特征分析未能发现与从蝙蝠分离出的另一种痘病毒（狐蝠痘病毒）共有的任何常见毒力基因；然而，EPTV编码3个可能已在与鹿痘病毒和松鼠痘病毒之间发生转移的基因；其中2个基因，一个假定的内皮素样蛋白和一个MHC I类样蛋白可能具有免疫调节作用。
