Kupe virus is a species of virus in the genus ''
Orthonairovirus
''Orthonairovirus'' is a genus of viruses in the family '' Nairoviridae'' of the order '' Hareavirales'' which includes viruses with circular, negative-sense single stranded RNA. The name is derived from the Nairobi sheep disease which affect ...
''.
History
The virus was isolated from pooled
tick
Ticks are parasitic arachnids of the order Ixodida. They are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, and species, but can become larger when engorged. Ticks a ...
s (''
Amblyomma gemma'' and ''
Rhipicephalus pulchellus
The zebra tick or yellow back tick (''Rhipicephalus pulchellus'') is a species of hard tick. It is common in the Horn of Africa, with a habitat of the East African Rift, Rift Valley and eastward. It feeds upon a wide variety of species, including ...
'') collected from cattle hides in
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
,
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, in October 1999.
[Sang R, Onyango C, Gachoya J, Mabinda E, Konongoi S, Ofula V, Dunster L, Okoth F, Coldren R, Tesh R, da Rossa AT, Finkbeiner S, Wang D, Crabtree M, Miller B (2006) Tickborne arbovirus surveillance in market livestock, Nairobi, Kenya. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006 Jul;12(7):1074-1080] The word 'Kupe' is
Kiswahili
Swahili, also known as as it is referred to in the Swahili language, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral i ...
for tick.
Genome
The genome is composed a single strand of negative sense RNA in three parts - small (S), medium (M0 and large(L).
The L segment RNA is 12,330
nucleotide
Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...
s (nt) in length and encodes one
open reading frame
In molecular biology, reading frames are defined as spans of DNA sequence between the start and stop codons. Usually, this is considered within a studied region of a prokaryotic DNA sequence, where only one of the six possible reading frames ...
(ORF) of 4,050 amino acids. There is a non coding regions: the 5′ region of 40 nt and the 3′ region of 137 nt. This open reading frame encodes several modules including a RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. It is probably post translationally cleaved into several proteins but this has yet to be shown.
The M segment RNA is 4,818 nucleotides in length and contains one open reading frame flanked by 5′ and 3′ non coding regions of 47 and 121 nucleotides respectively. The ORF encodes a protein of 1549 amino acids with 8 potential sites for N-linked glycosylation. It contains a unique potential N-gly site in the Gn and Gc glycoprotein regions at amino acids 612 and 1514 respectively.
The S segment has 1,694 nt and encodes an ORF of 483 amino acids. The 5′ and 3′ noncoding regions are 49 nt and 193 nt in length respectively.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6445325
Nairoviridae