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GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG MAYARO AND UNA VIRUSES SUGGEST DISTINCT PATTERNS OF TRANSMISSION

Mayaro and Una viruses (MAYV, UNAV) are mosquito-borne alphaviruses that may cause an acute febrile illness characterized by headache, retro-orbital pain, and rash that may progress to a severe and prolonged arthralgia. MAYV was first isolated in Trinidad in 1954, and UNAV was first identified in northern Brazil in 1959. Since then, numerous isolates of these agents have been made from humans, wild vertebrates, and mosquitoes in several countries in northern South America. Serological evidence suggests that these viruses are also present in portions of Central America. Because little is known about the natural transmission cycle of MAYV and virtually nothing is known about UNAV transmission, 63 isolates covering the known geographic and temporal ranges were used in phylogenetic analyses to aid in understanding the molecular epidemiology. Approximately 2 kb from the E1 and E2 glycoprotein genes and the complete 3' non-coding region were sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses of these sequences indicated that two distinct genotypes of MAYV exist with a distinct clade consisting exclusively of UNAV (previously designated as a subtype of MAYV). One MAYV genotype (genotype D) contains isolates from Trinidad and the northcentral portion of South America including Peru, French Guiana, Surinam, Brazil, and Bolivia. All of these isolates are highly conserved with a nucleotide divergence of < 6%. The second MAYV genotype (genotype L) contains isolates only from Brazil that are highly conserved (< 4% nucleotide divergence) but are quite distinct (15–19%) from the first genotype isolates. These analyses provide possible explanations for the natural ecology and transmission of MAYV and UNAV.

Received October 17, 2005. Accepted for publication April 28, 2006.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Arbovirus Reference Collection, the UTMB World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, and Dr. Tad Kochel of the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, Lima, Peru for providing the viruses used in this study.

Financial support: A.M.P. was supported in part by NIH Grant AI-07536. A.C.B. and P.A. were supported by the James W. McLaughlin Fellowship Fund and NIH Grant AI-107526. This research was supported in part by Grant AI049725 from the NSF/NIH program on the ecology of infectious disease, NIH Contract N01-AI30027, and CNPq grant process 302770/2002-0. This work was also supported by funded work unit No. 847705 82000 25GB B0016.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the U.S. Government. No official support or endorsement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services is intended, nor should be inferred.

Human use statement: Some of the Mayaro isolates were obtained under the study protocol which was approved by the Naval Medical Research Center Institutional Review Board (Protocol # NMRCD.2000.0006) in compliance with all applicable Federal regulations governing the protection of human subjects.

^* Address correspondence to Ann M. Powers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Fort Collins, CO 80522. E-mail: APowers{at}cdc.gov

Authors’ addresses: Ann M. Powers, Aaron C. Brault, and Tiffany Meakins, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Fort Collins, CO 80522. Patricia Aguilar, Laura J. Chandler, Amelia Travassos Da Rosa, Scott C. Weaver, and Robert B. Tesh, Center for Tropical Diseases, Department of Pathology, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555. Douglas Watts, Kevin Russell, and James Olson, US Naval Medical Research Center Detachment, Lima, Peru. Pedro Vasconcelos, Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Instituto Evandro Chagas, Belem, Para, Brazil.

Reprint requests: Ann M. Powers, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PO Box 2087, Fort Collins, CO 80522.