THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FLAVIVIRUSES SKALICA AND LANGAT AS REVEALED BY MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES, PEPTIDE-MAPPING AND RNA SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS

The flavivirus Skalica was isolated from a bank vole in Czechoslovakia in 1976. It can be serologically distinguished from prototype strains of tick-borne en-cephalitis (TBE) virus and has a decreased virulence for adult mice. We have further defined the relationship of Skalica virus to other members of the TBE serocomplex (TBE European and Far Eastern subtypes, Langat and louping ill virus) by using a panel of 22 monoclonal antibodies, peptide mapping and RNA sequence analyses. By these criteria Skalica virus proved to be distinct from TBE virus and to be very closely related to Langat virus, differing by only two bases among a total of 416 nucleotides compared. The sequence of 22% of the Langat genome was determined and the encoded am no acid sequences were derived. Comparison of these with the corresponding amino acid sequences of TBE virus revealed a similarity of 85%, as opposed to 93% similarity between the European and Far Eastern subtypes of TBE virus.