ARE PARTIAL MAJOR CAPSID PROTEIN AND eIF2-α SEQUENCES ENOUGH TO DETECT RECOMBINATION IN UK RANAVIRUS ISOLATES?

Ranaviruses are emerging pathogens of ectothermic vertebrates around the globe. Recently, it has been discovered that recombination has played a role in the emergence of these pathogens in the Southeastern United States. Based on that, we hypothesized that the recombination was likely involved in the emergence of these pathogens in the United Kingdom. To test this hypothesis, we used partial sequences from BUK 2, BUK 3, and RUK 13, which were thought to be recombinant viruses based on previously published partial sequence analyses. However, when recombination analyses were performed using RDP4, no recombination was found in either the partial major capsid protein (MCP) gene or the putative eukaryotic initiation factor 2 - α (eIF2-α) homologue gene. This result was expected as the MCP of each of these isolates holds a 100% identity with the MCP of Frog virus 3 (Accession Number KJ175144.1), and the putative eIF2-α homologue holds 100% identity with the Chinese Giant Salamander Iridovirus (Accession Number KF512820.1), which was shown in previous studies. We believe that the short sequences used in this study (partial loci) are too short to show recombination and that full genome sequences are necessary to determine if recombination has occurred in the genomes of these virulent ranaviruses