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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until September 01, 2029

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The Exploration of Genetic Variation of West Nile Virus and Mosquito Diversity in Northwest Ohio

Hibbets, Eric M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1718388037067738

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Biological Sciences.
West Nile virus (WNV) is an arbo-Orthoflavivirus belonging to the Japanese Encephalitis Complex that was first discovered in a febrile woman of the Uganda district in Africa. Following its initial discovery WNV has been detected on every major continent, except Antarctica, officially being detected in the Western hemisphere in the fall of 1999 in the Queens District of New York City. Since entering the western hemisphere 25 years ago, WNV has been reported in over 300 different avian species. In addition to avian cases, WNV has been detected in humans within all 50 states totaling 58,981 cases (both neuroinvasive and non-neuroinvasive) and 2,776 deaths. An RT-PCR protocol was developed and optimized to reproducibly generate cDNA for sequence analysis. Forty cDNA sequences were assembled from RT-PCR products of WNV origin, and the corresponding amino acid sequences predicted. Sequence variations at the nucleotide level were evident as 173 polymorphic sites; when translated these polymorphisms resulted in 18 polymorphic amino acid residues relative to the original New York reference strain. There were 42 total (36 different sites) instances where nucleotides present were ambiguous, suggesting that some of the samples analyzed contained material from more than one virion. Predicted polypeptide sequences indicated high conservation of specific envelop protein regions. These conserved regions were concentrated in envelope domain II, a region recognized to be essential for productive infection of host cells. My results suggest the number of WNV genomes recovered for analysis varied relative to local weather conditions during the 2018 collection season. Together these observations support the contention that environmental conditions have the potential to select variant genotypes of WNV.
Raymond A. Larsen, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Salim A. Elwazani, Ph.D. (Other)
Julia V. Halo, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Daniel M. Pavuk, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Scott O. Rogers, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
297 p.
Biology; Ecology; Entomology; Environmental Education; Microbiology; Molecular Biology; Virology
West Nile Virus; Flaviviruses; Envelope Domain; Passeriformes; Biogeographically Regions; Mosquitoes; Shannon’s Diversity; Simpson’s Diversity; Weather Conditions;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hibbets, E. M. (2024). The Exploration of Genetic Variation of West Nile Virus and Mosquito Diversity in Northwest Ohio [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1718388037067738

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hibbets, Eric. The Exploration of Genetic Variation of West Nile Virus and Mosquito Diversity in Northwest Ohio. 2024. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1718388037067738.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hibbets, Eric. "The Exploration of Genetic Variation of West Nile Virus and Mosquito Diversity in Northwest Ohio." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1718388037067738

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.