SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLETE S-GENOMIC SEGMENT OF A NEWLY IDENTIFIED HANTAVIRUS ISOLATED FROM THE WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE (PEROMYSCUS-LEUCOPUS) - PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER SIGMODONTINE RODENT-BORNE HANTAVIRUSES

Four Corners (FC) or Sin Nombre virus, a hantavirus harbored by the de er mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), is the principal etiologic agent of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). Recently, a hantavirus, designat ed New York (NY) virus, isolated from a white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) captured on Shelter Island, New York, was molecularly linke d to a fatal case of HPS occurring in the northeastern United States. To clarify the genetic and phylogenetic relationship between NY and FC viruses and other sigmodontine rodent-borne hantaviruses, we amplifie d and sequenced the entire S genomic segment of NY virus. The S segmen t of NY virus was 2078 nucleotides long, with an open reading frame of 1284 nucleotides in the virus complementary strand, capable of encodi ng a protein of 428 amino acids, and with a 752-nucleotide long 3'-non coding region, comprised of numerous imperfect repeats. Pairwise analy sis indicated that NY virus was more similar to FC virus than to other sigmodontine rodent-borne hantaviruses, differing from strains of FC virus by 16.6-17.8% and 7.0-8.2% at the nucleotide and amino acid leve ls, respectively. As determined by the maximum parsimony and neighbor- joining methods, NY virus formed a separate lineage from FC virus and was phylogenetically distinct from hantaviruses harbored by other sigm odontine rodents. Whether or not NY and FC viruses represent distinct viral species is unclear. Further analyses of hantaviruses harbored by white-footed mice are needed to clarify the genetic diversity and evo lution of Peromyscus-borne hantaviruses.