Nature Communications (May 2018)

Male germ cells support long-term propagation of Zika virus

  • Christopher L. Robinson,
  • Angie C. N. Chong,
  • Alison W. Ashbrook,
  • Ginnie Jeng,
  • Julia Jin,
  • Haiqi Chen,
  • Elizabeth I. Tang,
  • Laura A. Martin,
  • Rosa S. Kim,
  • Reyn M. Kenyon,
  • Eileen Do,
  • Joseph M. Luna,
  • Mohsan Saeed,
  • Lori Zeltser,
  • Harold Ralph,
  • Vanessa L. Dudley,
  • Marc Goldstein,
  • Charles M. Rice,
  • C. Yan Cheng,
  • Marco Seandel,
  • Shuibing Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04444-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Zika virus (ZIKV) can persist for months in semen and sperm. Here, the authors show that germ cells, compared to other cell types in the reproductive tract, are most susceptible to ZIKV and produce high levels of progeny virus, which coincides with decreased expression of the interferon-stimulated gene Ifi44l.