FIG 1.

(a) Representation of the WNV structural elements and binding sites of the 5′ and 3′ UTRs flanking the open reading frame (ORF). To initiate replication once cyclization has occurred, SLA binds to and directs the RdRp to the 3′ UTR (56–58). SLB contains the start codon for translation (55, 62), and cHP is a translation enhancer (67). The structure was generated using mFold online version 4.7 (74). Binding sites were identified by Brinton (62). (b) Alignment of the consensus sequences of the first 150 nucleotides of the WNV genome, via Geneious (105), shows that sequences of WNV after five passages in designated hosts are 100% identical with each other and with parental wild-type WNV infectious clone 3356 (WNVic).