Genetic variability and recombination in arenaviruses

GOÑI, S.E.; POSIK, D.M.; GHIRINGHELLI, P.D.; ROMANOWSKI, V.; LOZANO, M.E.

Bariloche

Congreso; XXXIX Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2003

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

Arenaviruses possess a bipartite single stranded RNA genome. Both molecules (RNAs S and L) present an ambisense coding strategy, with two genes in each one, separated by an intergenic region constituted by self-complementary sequences. Sources of genetic variation can have diverse origins including the error rate of the RNA replicases and, in multipartite viruses, the genomic rearrangement during progeny generation. In addition, recent evidences suggest that recombination among RNA molecules is a quite frequent event, that can have an important role as genetic variation source. In this work, we present alternative models of RNA recombination based on the bioinformatic analysis of complete S RNA sequences from arenaviruses. The main molecular mechanisms that would enable the formation of recombinants include copy-choice, primer-alignment-and-extension and trans-esterification. Whitewater Arroyo virus, Bear Canyon virus (both isolated in USA) and Rio Carcarañá virus (isolated in Argentina) provide evidences of natural recombination among arenaviruses detected by our theoretical analysis. All these possible genetic sources of variation, added to ecological and human activity changes, suggest that the number of arenaviruses would be increased in the next years. Molecular-epidemiological surveillance programs that contemplate these possibilities would be able to help to minimize the risks of the emergency or re-emergency of potential pathogens.