Autophagy is a cellular response to starvation which generates autophagosomes to carry cellular organelles and long-lived proteins to lysosomes for degradation. Degradation through autophagy can provide an innate defense against virus infection, or conversely autophagosomes can promote infection by facilitating assembly of replicase proteins. We demonstrate that the avian coronavirus, infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), activates autophagy. A screen of individual IBV nonstructural proteins (nsps) showed that autophagy was activated by IBV nsp6. This property was shared with nsp6 of mammalian coronaviruses mouse hepatitis virus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome virus, and the equivalent nsp5–7 of the arterivirus porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. These multiple-spanning transmembrane proteins located to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where they generated Atg5 and LC3II -positive vesicles, and vesicle formation was dependent on Atg5 and class III PI3 kinase. The vesicles recruited double-FYVE-domain containing protein (DFCP) indicating localized concentration of phosphatidylinositol 3 phosphate, and therefore shared many features with omegasomes formed from the ER in response to starvation. Omegasomes induced by viral nsp6 matured into autophagosomes that delivered LC3 to lysosomes and therefore recruited and recycled the proteins needed for autophagosome nucleation, expansion, cellular trafficking and delivery of cargo to lysosomes. The coronavirus nsp6 proteins activated omegasome and autophagosome formation independently of starvation, but activation did not involve direct inhibition of mTOR signaling, activation of sirtuin 1 or induction of ER stress.

Estimating detailed transmission trees that reflect the relationships between infected individuals or populations during a disease outbreak often provides valuable insights into both the nature of disease transmission and the overall dynamics of the underlying epidemiological process. These trees may be based on epidemiological data that relate to the timing of infection and infectiousness, or genetic data that show the genetic relatedness of pathogens isolated from infected individuals. Genetic data are becoming increasingly important in the estimation of transmission trees of viral pathogens due to their inherently high mutation rate. Here, we propose a maximum-likelihood approach that allows epidemiological and genetic data to be combined within the same analysis to infer probable transmission trees. We apply this approach to data from 20 farms infected during the 2001 UK foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, using complete viral genome sequences from each infected farm and information on when farms were first estimated to have developed clinical disease and when livestock on these farms were culled. Incorporating known infection links due to animal movement prior to imposition of the national movement ban results in the reduction of the number of trees from 41 472 that are consistent with the genetic data to 1728, of which just 4 represent more than 95% of the total likelihood calculated using a model that accounts for the epidemiological data. These trees differ in several ways from those constructed prior to the availability of genetic data.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus causes an acute vesicular disease of domesticated and wild ruminants and pigs. Identifying sources of FMD outbreaks is often confounded by incomplete epidemiological evidence and the numerous routes by which virus can spread (movements of infected animals or their products, contaminated persons, objects, and aerosols). Here, we show that the outbreaks of FMD in the United Kingdom in August 2007 were caused by a derivative of FMDV O1 BFS 1860, a virus strain handled at two FMD laboratories located on a single site at Pirbright in Surrey. Genetic analysis of complete viral genomes generated in real-time reveals a probable chain of transmission events, predicting undisclosed infected premises, and connecting the second cluster of outbreaks in September to those in August. Complete genome sequence analysis of FMD viruses conducted in real-time have identified the initial and intermediate sources of these outbreaks and demonstrate the value of such techniques in providing information useful to contemporary disease control programmes.

Author Summary

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks in the United Kingdom during August and September 2007 have caused severe disruption to the farming sector and cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Investigating and determining the source of these outbreaks is imperative for their effective management and future prevention. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) has a high mutation rate, resulting in rapid evolution. We show how complete genome sequences (acquired within 24–48 h of sample receipt) can be used to track FMDV movement from farm to farm in real time. This helped to determine the most likely source of the outbreak, assisted ongoing epidemiological investigations as to whether these field cases were linked to single or multiple releases from the source, and predicted the existence of undetected intermediate infected premises.

The objective of this study was to quantify the extent to which the genetic diversity of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) arising over the course of infection of an individual animal becomes fixed, is transmitted to other animals, and thereby accumulates over the course of an outbreak. Complete consensus sequences of 23 genomes (each of 8,200 nucleotides) of FMDV were recovered directly from epithelium tissue acquired from 21 farms infected over a nearly 7-month period during the 2001 FMDV outbreak in the United Kingdom. An analysis of these consensus sequences revealed very few apparently ambiguous sites but clear evidence of 197 nucleotide substitutions at 191 different sites. We estimated the rate of nucleotide substitution to be 2.26 × 10−5 per site per day (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.75 × 10−5 to 2.80 × 10−5) and nucleotide substitutions to accrue in the consensus sequence at an average rate of 1.5 substitutions per farm infection. This is a sufficiently high rate showing that detailed histories of the transmission pathways can be reliably reconstructed. Coalescent methods indicated that the date at which FMDV first infected livestock in the United Kingdom was 7 February 2001 (95% CI, 20 January to 19 February 2001), which was identical to estimates obtained on the basis of purely clinical evidence. Nucleotide changes appeared to have occurred evenly across the genome, and within the open reading frame, the ratio of nonsynonymous-to-synonymous change was 0.09. The ability to recover particular transmission pathways of acutely acting RNA pathogens from genetic data will help resolve uncertainties about how virus is spread and could help in the control of future epidemics.