Genetic Determinants of Sindbis Virus Mosquito Infection Are Associated with a Highly Conserved Alphavirus and Flavivirus Envelope Sequence

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Abstract
Wild-type Sindbis virus (SINV) strain MRE16 efficiently infects Aedes aegypti midgut epithelial cells (MEC), but laboratory-derived neurovirulent SINV strain TE/5′2J infects MEC poorly. SINV determinants for MEC infection have been localized to the E2 glycoprotein. The E2 amino acid sequences of MRE16 and TE/5′2J differ at 60 residue sites. To identify the genetic determinants of MEC infection of MRE16, the TE/5′2J virus genome was altered to contain either domain chimeras or more focused nucleotide substitutions of MRE16. The growth patterns of derived viruses in cell culture were determined, as were the midgut infection rates (MIR) in A. aegypti mosquitoes. The results showed that substitutions of MRE16 E2 aa 95 to 96 and 116 to 119 into the TE/5′2J virus increased MIR both independently and in combination with each other. In addition, a unique PPF/.GDS amino acid motif was located between these two sites that was found to be a highly conserved sequence among alphaviruses and flaviviruses but not other arboviruses.