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• Thor, S
• Hilt, D
• Kissinger, J
• Paterson, A
• Jackwood, M
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• Thor, S
• Hilt, D
• Kissinger, J
• Paterson, A
• Jackwood, M
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• Thor, S
• Hilt, D
• Kissinger, J
• Paterson, A
• Jackwood, M

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Viruses 2011, 3(9), 1777-1799; doi:10.3390/v3091777

Article

Recombination in Avian Gamma-Coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus

Sharmi W. Thor ¹ , Deborah A. Hilt ¹ , Jessica C. Kissinger ² , Andrew H. Paterson ³  and Mark W. Jackwood ^1,*

¹ Department of Population Health, Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA ² Department of Genetics, Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA ³ Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences, Plant Biology and Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 8 August 2011; in revised form: 24 August 2011 / Accepted: 5 September 2011 / Published: 23 September 2011

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recombination in Viruses)

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Abstract: Recombination in the family Coronaviridae has been well documented and is thought to be a contributing factor in the emergence and evolution of different coronaviral genotypes as well as different species of coronavirus. However, there are limited data available on the frequency and extent of recombination in coronaviruses in nature and particularly for the avian gamma-coronaviruses where only recently the emergence of a turkey coronavirus has been attributed solely to recombination. In this study, the full-length genomes of eight avian gamma-coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) isolates were sequenced and along with other full-length IBV genomes available from GenBank were analyzed for recombination. Evidence of recombination was found in every sequence analyzed and was distributed throughout the entire genome. Areas that have the highest occurrence of recombination are located in regions of the genome that code for nonstructural proteins 2, 3 and 16, and the structural spike glycoprotein. The extent of the recombination observed, suggests that this may be one of the principal mechanisms for generating genetic and antigenic diversity within IBV. These data indicate that reticulate evolutionary change due to recombination in IBV, likely plays a major role in the origin and adaptation of the virus leading to new genetic types and strains of the virus.

Keywords: gamma coronavirus; avian coronavirus; infectious bronchitis virus; genome; recombination

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