The genome of Irkut virus, isolate IRKV-THChina12, the first non-rabies lyssavirus from China (of bat origin), has been completely sequenced. In general, coding and non-coding regions of this viral genome are similar to those of other lyssaviruses. However, alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences of the structural proteins of IRKV-THChina12 with those of other lyssavirus representatives revealed significant variability between viral species. The nucleoprotein and matrix protein were found to be the most conserved, followed by the large protein, glycoprotein and phosphoprotein. Differences in the antigenic sites in glycoprotein may result in only partial protection of the available rabies biologics against Irkut virus, which is of particular concern for pre- and post-exposure rabies prophylaxis.
Keywords: ABLV; ARAV; Aravan virus; Australian bat lyssavirus; BBLV; Bat; Bokeloh bat lyssavirus; DUVV; Duvenhage virus; EBLV-1; EBLV-2; European bat lyssavirus 1; European bat lyssavirus 2; G; Genome; IKOV; IRKV; Ikoma lyssavirus; Irkut virus; Isolate; KHUV; Khujand virus; L; LBV; Lagos bat virus; Lyssavirus; M; MOKV; Mokola virus; N; P; RABV; Rabies virus; SHIBV; Shimoni bat virus; TR; UTR; WCBV; West Caucasian bat virus; glycoprotein; large protein: RNA-dependent RNA polymeraze; matrix protein; nt; nucleoprotein; nucleotides; phosphoprotein; translated region; untranslated region.
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