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Mahesh

05/09/24 10:45 AM IST

Genome mapping of Chandipura virus

In News
  • The Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) in Gandhinagar has published the only fully mapped genome of the Chandipura Vesiculovirus (CHPV).
Chandipura Virus
  • Chandipura is a viral infection that can lead to outbreaks of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) or brain swelling.
  • It is known to cause fever, headache, and encephalitis leading to convulsions, coma, and death, usually within a few days of the symptoms showing up.
  • The disease’s rapid progression is one of its defining features.
  • Children who tested positive and died of Chandipura during this year’s outbreak reported high grade fever, severe rashes from sandfly bites, convulsions, brain swelling, liver problems, and multi-organ failure usually within 72 hours of symptoms showing up
  • First isolated in Maharashtra in 1965, the Chandipura virus most severely affects children below the age of 15.
  • It can be transmitted by sandflies, ticks, as well as the Aedes aegypti mosquitoe which also transmits infections such as dengue and chikungunya. Sandflies were responsible for spreading the virus during the current outbreak, researchers found.
  • With no specific treatment, mortality due to the virus can be as high as 56 to 75 per cent, as seen in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in 2003 during India’s worst ever Chandipura outbreak that killed 322 children.
  • The case fatality ratio stood at about 45 per cent during the current outbreak.
Genome Mapping
  •  Genome mapping refers to the process of determining the location of genes on an organism’s chromosomes.
  • Scientists at the GBRC undertook this process to better understand the virus which was afflicting so many children in the state.
  • Genome mapping provides important clues on where a virus comes from, how it is changing, and whether it has any mutations that are likely to make it more transmissible or deadly.
  • Sequencing viral genomes helps researchers keep an eye on viruses that may lead to outbreaks in the future.
  • Genome refers to an organism’s complete set of DNA, which includes all its genes and mapping these genes simply means finding out the location of these genes in a chromosome.
  • In humans, each cell consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes for a total of 46 chromosomes, which means that for 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell, there are roughly 20,500 genes located on them.
  • Some of the genes are lined up in a row on each chromosome, while others are lined up quite close to one another and this arrangement might affect the way they are inherited.
  • For example, if the genes are placed sufficiently close together, there is a probability that they get inherited as a pair.
  • Genome mapping, therefore, essentially means figuring out the location of a specific gene on a particular region of the chromosome and also determining the location of and relative distances between other genes on that chromosome.
  • Significantly, genome mapping enables scientists to gather evidence if a disease transmitted from the parent to the child is linked to one or more genes.
  • Furthermore, mapping also helps in determining the particular chromosome which contains that gene and the location of that gene in the chromosome.
Source- Indian Express

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