Dengue Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dengue Fever, including details on symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, prevention.

Long-term transmission of defective RNA viruses in humans and Aedes mosquitoes.

Aaskov J, Buzacott K, Thu HM, Lowry K, Holmes EC

School of Life Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, 4001, Australia.

In 2001, dengue virus type 1 (DENV-1) populations in humans and mosquitoes from Myanmar acquired a stop-codon mutation in the surface envelope (E) protein gene. Within a year, this stop-codon strain had spread to all individuals sampled. The presence of truncated E protein species within individual viral populations, along with a general relaxation in selective constraint, indicated that the stop-codon strain represents a defective lineage of DENV-1. We propose that such long-term transmission of defective RNA viruses in nature was achieved through complementation by coinfection of host cells with functional viruses.

Published 13 January 2006 in Science, 311(5758): 236-8.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Dengue Fever Research Today. All Rights Reserved.