IDENTIFICATION OF UNIQUE FAMILY-SPECIFIC MARKERS FOR MOLECULAR DETECTION OF ARBOVIRUSES: APPLICATION TO BUNYAVIRIDAE AND TOGAVIRIDAE FAMILIES

Abstract

Recent incidences of emerging arbovirus (arthropod-borne) disease outbreaks have led to heavy losses globally. Molecular virology offers a range of methods, able to accelerate and improve the diagnosis of arbovirus diseases but these rely heavily on the availability of robust PCR-based markers of the causative agents. The great genetic diversity exhibited by viral genomes makes it difficult to design specific signatures or markers since most methods start with a multiple sequence alignment (MSA). This study aimed at exploring the use of recently developed software (PriMux) prototyped on viral pathogens, that designs multiplex compatible degenerate primers without need for an initial MSA. It was used to design family-specific molecular signatures for arboviruses and members from the bunyaviridae and togaviridae virus families were used as models.