Norovirus polymerase fidelity contributes to viral transmission in vivo

Virus replication fidelity and hence the intrahost genetic diversity of viral populations are known to be intricately linked to viral pathogenesis and tropism as well as to immune and antiviral escape during infection. In this study, we investigated whether changes in replication fidelity can impact...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Arias Esteban, Armando, Thorne , Lucy, Ghurburrun , Elsa, Bailey , Dalan, Goodfellow , Ian
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/46905
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10578/46905
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Noroviruses
Polymerase fidelity
Quasispecies
RNA polymerases
Virus transmission
Descripción
Sumario:Virus replication fidelity and hence the intrahost genetic diversity of viral populations are known to be intricately linked to viral pathogenesis and tropism as well as to immune and antiviral escape during infection. In this study, we investigated whether changes in replication fidelity can impact the ability of a virus to transmit between susceptible hosts by the use of a mouse model for norovirus. We show that a variant encoding a high-fidelity polymerase is transmitted less efficiently between mice than the wild-type strain. This constitutes the first experimental demonstration that the polymerase fidelity of viruses can impact transmission of infection in their natural hosts. These results provide further insight into potential reasons for the global emergence of pandemic human noroviruses that display alterations in the replication fidelity of their polymerases compared to nonpandemic strains.