Revisiting Rustrela Virus: New Cases of Encephalitis and a Solution to the Capsid Enigma
Florian Pfaff, Angele Breithaupt, Dennis Rubbenstroth, Sina Nippert, Christina Baumbach, Sascha Gerst, Christoph Langner, Claudia Wylezich, Arnt Ebinger, Dirk W. Höper, Rainer G. Ulrich, Martin Beer
Abstract
The detection of rustrela virus (RusV)-associated encephalitis in two carnivoran mammal species further extends the knowledge on susceptible species. Furthermore, we provide clinical and pathological data for the two new RusV cases, which were until now limited to the initial description of this fatal encephalitis. Using a sophisticated enrichment method prior to sequencing of the viral genome, we markedly improved the virus-to-background sequence ratio compared to that of standard procedures. Consequently, we were able to resolve and update the intergenic region and the coding region for the N terminus of the capsid protein of the initial RusV genome sequence. The updated putative capsid protein now resembles those of rubella and ruhugu virus in size and harbors a predicted RNA-binding domain that had not been identified in the initial RusV genome version. The newly determined complete RusV genomes strongly improve our knowledge of the genome structure of this novel rubivirus.