Soochong virus and Amur virus might be the same entities of hantavirus

Amur virus (AMRV) and Soochong virus (SOOV) were reported to be carried by Korean field mice (Apodemus peninsulae) in the Far East of Russia, China, and Korea. The distinction and demarcation between these two viruses have been a matter of debate. In order to clarify this issue and to confirm taxonomic position of AMRV and SOOV, the extensive phylogenetic analyses based on entire S segment and entire M segment sequences of AMRV, SOOV and other reference virus strains deposited in GenBank, were carried out using maximum likelihood and distant matrix methods. All inferred phylogenies revealed that all AMRV strains from China and Far East and SOOV (especially SOO-1/2 strains from Northeastern Korea) shared high identities of nucleotide sequences and were monophyletic distinct from Apodernus agrarius HTNV. Although two genetic sublineages of SOOV exist, these findings revealed that AMRV and SOOV might belong to the same entities of hantavirus.