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Evolutionary analysis of rabies virus isolates from Georgia

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Abstract

Genetic relationships between rabies virus (RABV) isolates recovered from dogs, jackals, and cattle in Georgia and their closest relatives were investigated by comparing their nucleoprotein (N) gene sequences. Multiple isolates from dogs and cattle were found to share identical N gene sequences, indicating a risk of dog-to-cattle rabies transmission in Georgia. Exhibiting population-selective sweeps, expansion, and genetic recombination, evolutionary analysis of Georgian RABV isolates (all belonging to the cosmopolitan clade) and isolates from Russia, Turkey, and elsewhere provided further evidence for coinfections with different rabies virus strains and transborder transmission.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Stylianos Koulouris and Yves Van der Stede for their helpful discussions and editing of the manuscript.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Leila Tabatadze and Ekaterine Gabashvili contributed equally to the research described in this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Risk Assessment, Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture, 6 Marshal Gelovani Ave., 0159, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Leila Tabatadze, Ekaterine Gabashvili & Saba Kobakhidze

  2. Bioinformatics Core, Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture, 6 Marshal Gelovani Ave., 0159, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Ekaterine Gabashvili & Saba Kobakhidze

  3. Scientific-Research Group, Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture, 6 Marshal Gelovani Ave., 0159, Tbilisi, Georgia

    George Lomidze

  4. Department of Livestock Breeding, Veterinary and Forage Production, Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture, 6 Marshal Gelovani Ave., 0159, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Jimsher Loladze

  5. Division of Veterinary Research, Department of Livestock Breeding, Veterinary and Forage Production,, Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture, 6 Marshal Gelovani Ave., 0159, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Levan Tsitskishvili

  6. G. Natadze Scientific-Research Institute of Sanitary, Hygiene and Medical Ecology, 78 D. Uznadze St., 0102, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Mamuka Kotetishvili

  7. The University of Georgia, 77a M. Kostava St., 0171, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Mamuka Kotetishvili

Authors
  1. Leila Tabatadze
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  2. Ekaterine Gabashvili
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  3. Saba Kobakhidze
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  4. George Lomidze
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  5. Jimsher Loladze
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  6. Levan Tsitskishvili
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  7. Mamuka Kotetishvili
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Contributions

LT and EG mined the DNA sequence data from the NCBI GenBank database and performed the ST and genetic recombination analysis. SK and GL contributed to the phylogenetic and recombination analysis. JL and LT provided their expertise for the study and contributed to a draft of the manuscript. MK developed the concept and design for, and supervised the study, as well as drafted and formulated the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mamuka Kotetishvili.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Handling Editor: William G Dundon.

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Tabatadze, L., Gabashvili, E., Kobakhidze, S. et al. Evolutionary analysis of rabies virus isolates from Georgia. Arch Virol 167, 2293–2298 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-022-05550-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-022-05550-3

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