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A porcine circovirus-2 mutant isolated in Brazil contains low-frequency substitutions in regions of immunoprotective epitopes in the capsid protein

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Abstract

Porcine circovirus-2 (PCV2) is the etiologic agent of several diseases in pigs, including multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). In this work, a new mutant PCV2b was isolated from PMWS-affected pigs on a Brazilian farm. Its genome showed high sequence similarity (>99 % identity) to those from a group of emerging mutants isolated from cases of PMWS outbreaks in vaccinated pigs in China, the USA and South Korea. Here, we show that these isolates share a combination of low-frequency substitutions (single amino acid polymorphisms with a frequency of ≤25 %) in the viral capsid protein, mainly in regions of immunoprotective epitopes, and an additional lysine residue at position 234. These isolates were phylogenetically grouped in the PCV2b clade, reinforcing the idea of the emergence of a new group of mutants PCV2b associated with outbreaks worldwide. The identification of these polymorphisms in the viral capsid highlights the importance of considering these isolates for the development of more-effective vaccines.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript. The authors would like to thank Carlos José Locatelli Salgado, the veterinarian responsible for the farm where the outbreak occurred, along with the owner of the farm, for permission for sample collection and release of the results. We also thank the Department of Information Technology (Universidade Federal de Viçosa [http://www.dti.ufv.br]) for supporting the data analysis on the computational cluster.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Infectologia Molecular Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Rafael Locatelli Salgado, Natalia F. Gonzaga, Luiz F. L. de Souza, Marcelo D. Polêto, Thiago Souza Onofre, Juliana L. R. Fietto, Gustavo C. Bressan, Márcia R. Almeida & Abelardo Silva Júnior

  2. Departmento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Rafael Locatelli Salgado, Marcelo D. Polêto, Thiago Souza Onofre, Juliana L. R. Fietto, Gustavo C. Bressan & Márcia R. Almeida

  3. Núcleo de Análise de Biomoléculas (NuBiomol), Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Pedro Marcus Pereira Vidigal

  4. Departmento de Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Natalia F. Gonzaga, Luiz F. L. de Souza & Abelardo Silva Júnior

  5. Departmento de Tecnologia de Alimentos, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Av. PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Monique R. Eller

  6. Escola de Veterinária, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, Campus Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30161-970, Brazil

    Carlos Eduardo Real Pereira & Roberto M. C. Guedes

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  1. Rafael Locatelli Salgado
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  2. Pedro Marcus Pereira Vidigal
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  3. Natalia F. Gonzaga
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  4. Luiz F. L. de Souza
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  12. Márcia R. Almeida
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  13. Abelardo Silva Júnior
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Correspondence to Abelardo Silva Júnior.

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Salgado, R.L., Vidigal, P.M.P., Gonzaga, N.F. et al. A porcine circovirus-2 mutant isolated in Brazil contains low-frequency substitutions in regions of immunoprotective epitopes in the capsid protein. Arch Virol 160, 2741–2748 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-015-2567-z

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