Phylogenetic and recombinant analyses of complete coding sequences of DENV-1 from field-caught mosquitoes in Thailand

Dengue diseases are a group of infectious diseases that have been widespread throughout the world for several decades. Dengue outbreaks have occurred in many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia. The outbreak and the severity of the diseases depend on many factors including dengue genotype. Data on the genetic variation of dengue virus is highly informative for dengue protection plans and vaccine development. In this study, we focused on the analyses of genetic variation and amino acid changes of the whole coding sequences in two dengue strains isolated from Aedes mosquitoes in Bangkok, Thailand, an endemic area. The strains were identified as belonging to dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) genotype I, and have unique nucleotide sequences. In the recombinant analysis, these strains were identified as recombinants derived from Chinese counterparts for both the major (DENV-1 genotype I) and the minor (DENV-1 genotype IV) parental strains. The recombination event occurred within the prM and E genes. This corresponded with the result of multiple alignments where several amino acid residues between the recombination breakpoints in the strains were identical to those in DENV-1 genotype IV. Several of the amino acid substitutions also have changed the amino acid properties, which might affect viral infection and antigenicity. These results provide insight into the genetic variation of DENV in this endemic area, which might have been involved in the dengue outbreak and high numbers of dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome cases in Thailand in 2015.