Nature Communications (Feb 2021)

Recent African strains of Zika virus display higher transmissibility and fetal pathogenicity than Asian strains

  • Fabien Aubry,
  • Sofie Jacobs,
  • Maïlis Darmuzey,
  • Sebastian Lequime,
  • Leen Delang,
  • Albin Fontaine,
  • Natapong Jupatanakul,
  • Elliott F. Miot,
  • Stéphanie Dabo,
  • Caroline Manet,
  • Xavier Montagutelli,
  • Artem Baidaliuk,
  • Fabiana Gámbaro,
  • Etienne Simon-Lorière,
  • Maxime Gilsoul,
  • Claudia M. Romero-Vivas,
  • Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau,
  • Richard G. Jarman,
  • Cheikh T. Diagne,
  • Oumar Faye,
  • Ousmane Faye,
  • Amadou A. Sall,
  • Johan Neyts,
  • Laurent Nguyen,
  • Suzanne J. F. Kaptein,
  • Louis Lambrechts

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21199-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Here, the authors compare seven low passage Zika virus (ZIKV) strains representing the recently circulating viral genetic diversity of African and Asian strains and find that African ZIKV strains have higher transmissibility in mosquitoes and higher lethality in both adult and fetal mice.