Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Rabies Virus in China

【摘要】：正As one of the oldest diseases in the world,rabies history in China can be traced back to 2000 years ago,and for more than a decade,China has been a country with the second highest human rabies cases in the world.Phylogenetic studies have revealed a profound understanding about the biodiversity of rabies virus in China,but the evolutionary dynamics of this virus in the country remain unknown.In present study,the complete G gene sequences of 33 RABVs isolated from distinct provinces of China were determined and phylogenetic analysis was conducted using these G sequences and 91 others retrieved from GenBank representing China and Southeast Asia.Further evolutionary and divergence times of RABV were estimated using a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method to understand the temporal and spatial dynamics of this virus in China and Asia.Results showed that rabies viruses in China and Southeast Asia share a common ancestor and formed 2 clades,Asian 1 and Asian 2,with each being further divided into 3 lineages.The time of the most recent common ancestor of current RABV variants in China and Southeast Asia was estimated to be year 1762(1648-1859) and the viruses circulating in Southeast Asia likely derived from China.This study presents the first temporal-spatial dynamics of RABV in China and Southeast Asia.