Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Genetic characteristics and geographic distribution of rabies virus in China

  • Brief Report
  • Published:
Archives of Virology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

China is one of the largest countries with endemic rabies. In this study, we examined the full-length genome sequences of 87 rabies virus (RABV) strains identified in China from 1931 to 2019. Chinese RABV isolates were divided into two major clades, GI and GII. Clade GI consisted of viruses from the Asian clade, which was further divided into three subclades: Asian1, Asian2, and Asian3. Clade GII consisted of viruses from the Cosmopolitan, Arctic-related, and Indian clades. A phylogeographic network showed that the variation of rabies virus was more closely associated with geographic location than with the host species. Recombination appears to be one of the factors driving the emergence of new viral strains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Data availability

The nucleotide and protein sequence data used in this study are available in the NCBI GenBank database.

References

  1. Brunker K, Mollentze N (2018) Rabies virus. Trends Microbiol 26(10):886–887

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Walker PJ et al (2018) ICTV virus taxonomy profile: rhabdoviridae. J Gen Virol 99(4):447–448

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Wunner WH et al (1988) The molecular biology of rabies viruses. Rev Infect Dis 10(Suppl 4):S771–S784

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Yang J et al (1998) The specificity of rabies virus RNA encapsidation by nucleoprotein. Virology 242(1):107–117

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. de Melo GD et al (2022) Monoclonal antibodies against rabies: current uses in prophylaxis and in therapy. Curr Opin Virol 53:101204

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Yue Y et al (2022) A descriptive analysis of human rabies in Mainland China, 2005–2020. Int J Environ Res Public Health 20(1):380

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Liu Y et al (2010) Ferret badger rabies origin and its revisited importance as potential source of rabies transmission in Southeast China. BMC Infect Dis 10:234

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Shao XQ et al (2011) Genetic evidence for domestic raccoon dog rabies caused by Arctic-like rabies virus in Inner Mongolia China. Epidemiol Infect 139(4):629–635

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhang S et al (2009) Rabies in ferret badgers, southeastern China. Emerg Infect Dis 15(6):946–949

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Feng Y et al (2021) Epidemiology of animal rabies China, 2010–2020. China CDC Wkly 3(39):815–818

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Taxitiemuer A et al (2017) An investigation of the first case of human rabies caused by a fox in China in May 2016. Biomed Environ Sci 30(11):825–828

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Tao XY et al (2019) The reemergence of human rabies and emergence of an Indian subcontinent lineage in Tibet China. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 13(1):e0007036

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Feng Y et al (2015) Disease outbreaks caused by steppe-type rabies viruses in China. Epidemiol Infect 143(6):1287–1291

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Tamura K et al (2021) MEGA11: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 11. Mol Biol Evol 38(7):3022–3027

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Hall TA (1999) BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT, Nucleic acids symposium series. Information Retrieval Ltd, c1979-c2000, London, pp 95–98

    Google Scholar 

  16. Trifinopoulos J et al (2016) W-IQ-TREE: a fast online phylogenetic tool for maximum likelihood analysis. Nucl Acids Res 44(W1):W232–W235

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Leigh JW, Bryant D (2015) POPART: full-feature software for haplotype network construction. Methods Ecol Evol 6(9):1110–1116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Martin DP et al (2015) RDP4: detection and analysis of recombination patterns in virus genomes. Virus Evol 1(1):vev003

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Bourhy H et al (2008) The origin and phylogeography of dog rabies virus. J Gen Virol 89(Pt 11):2673–2681

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Tao XY et al (2013) Molecular phylodynamic analysis indicates lineage displacement occurred in Chinese rabies epidemics between 1949 to 2010. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 7(7):e2294

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Ma J et al (2019) Epidemiological and phylogenetic analysis of rabies virus isolated from humans in Henan province China. Arch Virol 164(11):2811–2817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Lang SL et al (2012) Molecular characterization of viral G gene in emerging and re-emerging areas of rabies in China, 2007 to 2011. Virol Sin 27(3):194–203

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Liu H et al (2020) Rabies viruses in specific wild fur animals in northern China, 2017–2019. Transbound Emerg Dis 67(6):2307–2312

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Tao XY et al (2019) Inner Mongolia: a potential portal for the spread of rabies to Western China. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 19(1):51–58

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Meng S et al (2010) Transmission dynamics of rabies in China over the last 40 years: 1969–2009. J Clin Virol 49(1):47–52

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Tao XY et al (2009) Molecular epidemiology of rabies in Southern People’s Republic of China. Emerg Infect Dis 15(8):1192–1198

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  27. Tao XY et al (2015) Rabies cases in the west of china have two distinct origins. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9(10):e0004140

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Liu W et al (2011) Evidence for inter- and intra-clade recombinations in rabies virus. Infect Genet Evol 11(8):1906–1912

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Miao FM et al (2018) Emerging new phylogenetic groups of rabies virus in Chinese ferret badgers. Biomed Environ Sci 31(6):479–482

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Li H et al (2016) Whole genome sequencing and comparisons of different Chinese Rabies virus lineages including the first complete genome of an Arctic-like strain in China. Biomed Environ Sci 29(5):340–346

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Szabó PM et al (2020) Investigations on spreading of PRRSV among swine herds by improved minimum spanning network analysis. Sci Rep 10(1):19217

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Chare ER et al (2003) Phylogenetic analysis reveals a low rate of homologous recombination in negative-sense RNA viruses. J Gen Virol 84(Pt 10):2691–2703

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank everyone who contributed to the collection and production of RABV genomic sequences in NCBI GenBank.

Funding

This work is supported by Four "batches” innovation project of invigorating medical through science and technology of Shanxi province for Dr. Li Xing (2023XM015) and the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (D21004).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Pei-Hua Wang and Pir Tariq Shah have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi Province, China

    Pei-Hua Wang, Pir Tariq Shah & Li Xing

  2. Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Cell Biology, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi Province, China

    Li Xing

  3. Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Prevention and Treatment of Major Infectious Diseases, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006, Shanxi Province, China

    Li Xing

Authors
  1. Pei-Hua Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pir Tariq Shah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Li Xing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

PHW and LX conceived the study. PHW and PS performed analysis. PHW wrote the manuscript. PHW and LX revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Xing.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

Ethical approval

This work did not involve the use of human or animal subjects.

Additional information

Handling Editor: William G Dundon.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 37 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, PH., Shah, P.T. & Xing, L. Genetic characteristics and geographic distribution of rabies virus in China. Arch Virol 169, 14 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05947-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-023-05947-8

Search

Navigation