On the Classification of Lyssaviruses

On the Classification of Lyssaviruses

The genus Lyssavirus belongs to Rhabdoviridae and includes viruses causing the fatal encephalitis rabies. Previous phylogenetic analyses of lyssaviruses were mainly based on partial sequence of the nucleoprotein or concatenated gene sequences. With the recent identification of new species and availability of their complete genome sequences, a revision of the taxonomy and classification of Lyssavirus is desirable to understand the phylogenetic relationships within Lyssavirus. We propose here a new classification for Lyssavirus through comparison of complete genome or nucleoprotein gene sequence comprising the currently identified 15 lyssaviruses. According to this proposal, the updated classification of Lyssavirus should include four phylogroups: phylogroup I (Rabies virus, Duvenhage virus, European bat lyssavirus types 1 and 2, Australian bat lyssavirus, Khujand virus, Bokeloh bat lyssavirus, Irkut virus and Aravan virus), phylogroup II (Lagos bat virus, Mokola virus and Shimoni bat virus), phylogroup III (West Caucasian bat virus) and phylogroup IV (Ikoma lyssavirus and Lleida bat lyssavirus).