Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA.
Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45229, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 20;7(1):13666. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13936-6.
High throughout sequencing has provided an unprecedented view of the circulating diversity of all classes of human herpesviruses. For herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), we and others have previously published data demonstrating sequence diversity between hosts. However the extent of variation during transmission events, or in one host over years of chronic infection, remain unknown. Here we present an initial example of full characterization of viruses isolated from a father to son transmission event. The likely occasion of transmission occurred 17 years before the strains were isolated, enabling a first view of the degree of virus conservation after decades of recurrences, including transmission and adaptation to a new host. We have characterized the pathogenicity of these strains in a mouse ocular model of infection, and sequenced the full viral genomes. Surprisingly, we find that these two viruses have preserved their phenotype and genotype nearly perfectly during inferred transmission from father to son, and during nearly two decades of episodes of recurrent disease in each human host. Given the close genetic relationship of these two hosts, it remains to be seen whether or not this conservation of sequence will occur during non-familial transmission events.
高通量测序为人类疱疹病毒各属的循环多样性提供了前所未有的视角。对于单纯疱疹病毒 1 (HSV-1)，我们和其他人之前已经发表了数据，证明了宿主之间的序列差异。然而，在传播事件中或在慢性感染的多年中，病毒的变异程度仍不清楚。在这里，我们首次提供了一个从父子传播事件中分离出的病毒进行全面特征描述的例子。传播的可能发生在这两种病毒株被分离出来的 17 年前，这使我们第一次看到了病毒在数十年的复发，包括传播和适应新宿主后，保持了多大程度的保守性。我们已经在小鼠眼部感染模型中对这些菌株的致病性进行了特征描述，并对完整的病毒基因组进行了测序。令人惊讶的是，我们发现这两种病毒在从父亲到儿子的推断传播过程中，以及在每个人类宿主经历的近二十年反复发作中，几乎完美地保持了其表型和基因型。鉴于这两个宿主的密切遗传关系，在非家庭传播事件中是否会发生这种序列保守性还有待观察。
