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Evolution of the BK polyomavirus: epidemiological, anthropological and clinical implications
Author(s) -
Yogo Yoshiaki,
Sugimoto Chie,
Zhong Shan,
Homma Yukio
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
reviews in medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.06
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1654
pISSN - 1052-9276
DOI - 10.1002/rmv.613
Subject(s) - bk virus , biology , genotyping , virology , genome , population , genetics , genotype , gene , medicine , kidney , environmental health , kidney transplantation
BK polyomavirus (BKV) is essentially ubiquitous in all human populations worldwide. Asymptomatic infection with this virus occurs during early childhood, leading to life‐long persistence in the kidney. BKV has four subtypes that can be identified using serological and genotyping methods. The evolutionary aspects of BKV have remained poorly understood due to the limited availability of BKV genomes, since urinary excretion of BKV DNA is detected primarily in immunocompromised individuals. However, we have found that BKV DNA sequences can often be amplified from non‐immunocompromised elderly individuals, using a highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with highly concentrated urinary DNA as the source of viral DNA. Using this approach, we have PCR‐amplified and sequenced a large number of partial and complete BKV genomes from various human populations worldwide and conducted a series of evolutionary studies using these sequences. We have shown that subtypes I and IV evolved into four and six subgroups, respectively, with each having a close relationship with a particular human population. In addition, we have provided evidence supporting the hypothesis that BKV strains with the archetypal transcriptional control region (TCR) circulate in the human population. In this review, we describe these findings and discuss their epidemiological, anthropological and clinical implications. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.