Tuyển tập báo cáo các nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế ngành y học dành cho các bạn tham khảo đề tài: A neurotropic herpesvirus infecting the gastropod, abalone, shares ancestry with oyster herpesvirus and a herpesvirus associated with the amphioxus genome | Savin et al. Virology Journal 2010 7 308 http content 7 1 308 VIROLOGY JOURNAL SHORT REPORT Open Access A neurotropic herpesvirus infecting the gastropod abalone shares ancestry with oyster herpesvirus and a herpesvirus associated with the amphioxus genome 1 1 14 Keith W Savin Benjamin G Cocks Frank Wong Tim Sawbridge Noel Cogan David Savage Simone Warner2 Abstract Background With the exception of the oyster herpesvirus OsHV-1 all herpesviruses characterized thus far infect only vertebrates. Some cause neurological disease in their hosts while others replicate or become latent in neurological tissues. Recently a new herpesvirus causing ganglioneuritis in abalone a gastropod was discovered. Molecular analysis of new herpesviruses such as this one and others still to be discovered in invertebrates will provide insight into the evolution of herpesviruses. Results We sequenced the genome of a neurotropic virus linked to a fatal ganglioneuritis devastating parts of a valuable wild abalone fishery in Australia. We show that the newly identified virus forms part of an ancient clade with its nearest relatives being a herpesvirus infecting bivalves oyster and unexpectedly one we identified from published data apparently integrated within the genome of amphioxus an invertebrate chordate. Predicted protein sequences from the abalone virus genome have significant similarity to several herpesvirus proteins including the DNA packaging ATPase subunit of putative terminase and DNA polymerase. Conservation of amino acid sequences in the terminase across all herpesviruses and phylogenetic analysis using the DNA polymerase and terminase proteins demonstrate that the herpesviruses infecting the molluscs oyster and abalone are distantly related. The terminase and polymerase protein sequences from the putative amphioxus herpesvirus share more sequence similarity with those of the mollusc viruses than with sequences from any of the vertebrate herpesviruses .