Novel Oliveros-like Clade C Mammarenaviruses from Rodents in Argentina 1990-2019

Following an Argentina Hemorrhagic Fever (AHF) outbreak in the early 1990s, a rodent survey for Junin virus in endemic areas of Argentina was conducted. Improved ecological surveillance of rodents continued through the efforts of the Argentine National Institute of Human Viral Diseases (INEVH) as a result of this outbreak. Samples from rodents captured between 1993-2019 that were positive for arenavirus infection underwent next-generation and sanger sequencing, which yielded 5 complete and 13 partial Mammarenavirus genomes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these Mammarenavirus Mammarenavirus genomes expand the New World arenavirus Clade C and 2 genomes exhibit enough genetic diversity for new species classification by ICTV guidelines. This diversity is hypothesized to be a result of the first recorded occurrence of reassortment between the Small and Large segment in New World Mammarenaviruses. This work also demonstrates that Clade C Mammarenavirus infections circulate broadly among multiple rodent species, which challenges our historical assumption that one single arenavirus species is associated with one single host species.