Rustrela virus explained

Rustrela virus, scientific name Rubivirus strelense, is a species of virus in the genus Rubivirus.

History

Scientists discovered Rustrela in acutely encephalitic placental and marsupial mammals  - a donkey, a capybara, and a wallaby  - in a zoo in Germany, and in wild yellow-necked field mice in and around the zoo.^[1] The virus can jump between species and interestingly infects both placental and marsupial animals.

Structure

The Rustrela virus has the same genomic structure as the Rubella virus. Rustrela has a few amino acid differences in the protein which binds to host cells.^[2] There are four putative B cell epitopes in the fusion (E1) protein of rustrela that are highly conserved with Rubella virus and Ruhugu virus.^[1]

Notes and References

1. Bennett . Andrew . Paskey . Adrian . Relatives of rubella virus in diverse mammals . Nature . 2020 . 586 . 7829 . 424–428 . 10.1038/s41586-020-2812-9 . 7572621 . 33029010. 2020Natur.586..424B .  - See also article correction: Bennett . Andrew J. . Paskey . Adrian C. . Ebinger . Arnt . Pfaff . Florian . Priemer . Grit . Höper . Dirk . Breithaupt . Angele . Heuser . Elisa . Ulrich . Rainer G. . Kuhn . Jens H. . Bishop-Lilly . Kimberly A. . Beer . Martin . Goldberg . Tony L. . Author Correction: Relatives of rubella virus in diverse mammals . Nature . 3 December 2020 . 588 . 7836 . E2 . 10.1038/s41586-020-2897-1. 33199919 . 2020Natur.588E...2B . 226991151 . free .
2. Web site: Tyrrell . Kelly . First relatives of rubella virus discovered in bats in Uganda and mice in Germany . University of Wisconsin-Madison . 16 November 2020.