ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1544577
Genetic and codon usage analyses reveal the evolution of the Seoul virus
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Public Health, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Hebei Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China
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Seoul virus (Orthohantavirus seoulense, SEOV), a member of the Hantaviridae, causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) through rodent hosts. However, its molecular evolutionary dynamics and codon usage patterns remain poorly understood. This study integrated coding sequences from GenBank and previously acquired SEOV strains to systematically analyze genetic evolution and codon usage bias. Results revealed that SEOV evolved seven clades (A-G) with distinct amino acid variation sites and geographic clustering. Recombination events were identified during evolution, alongside purifying and positive selection on specific sites (e.g., codon 259 in the S segment and codon 11 in the M segment). The three viral segments (L, M, and S) exhibited weak codon usage bias, predominantly driven by natural selection, with host adaptation significantly influencing evolutionary trajectories. The S segment demonstrated the strongest pathogenicity due to its closer codon usage alignment with Homo sapiens (H. sapiens) and Rattus norvegicus (R. norvegicus), whereas the L segment showed the lowest host adaptation. Divergent codon preferences among clades highlighted adaptive strategies in host-virus interactions. These findings elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms of SEOV and provide a theoretical foundation for live attenuated vaccine design and region-specific viral control strategies.
Keywords: Hantavirus, Seoul virus, genetic, phylogenetic, codon usage bias, evolution
Received: 13 Dec 2024; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Cai, Han, Han, Zhang, Xu, Jiang and LI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qi LI, School of Public Health, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
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