The evolution of chikungunya virus circulating in Indonesia: Sequence analysis of the orf2 gene encoding the viral structural proteins

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod-borne virus that has caused several major epidemics globally, including in Indonesia. Although significant progress has been achieved in understanding the epidemiology and genotype circulation of CHIKV in Indonesia, the evolution of Indonesian CHIKV isolates is poorly understood. Thus, our study aimed to perform phylogenetic and mutation analyses of the orf2 gene encoding its viral structural protein to improve our understanding of CHIKV evolution in Indonesia. Complete orf2 gene sequences encoding the viral structural proteins of Indonesian-derived CHIKV were downloaded from GenBank until August 31, 2022. Various bioinformatics tools were employed to perform phylogenetic and mutation analyses of the orf2 gene. We identified 76 complete sequences of orf2 gene of CHIKV isolates originally derived from Indonesia. Maximum likelihood trees demonstrated that the majority (69/76, 90.8) of Indonesian-derived CHIKV isolates belonged to the Asian genotype, while seven isolates (9.2) belonged to the East/Central/South African (ECSA) genotype. The Indonesian-derived CHIKV isolates were calculated to be originated in Indonesia around 95 years ago (1927), with 95 highest posterior density (HPD) ranging from 1910 to 1942 and a nucleotide substitution rate of 5.07 × 10−4 (95 HPD: 3.59 × 10−4 to 6.67 × 10−4). Various synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions were identified in the C, E3, E2, 6K, and E1 genes. Most importantly, the E1-A226V mutation, which has been reported to increase viral adaptation in Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, was present in all ECSA isolates. To our knowledge, our study is the first comprehensive research analyzing the mutation and evolution of Indonesian-derived CHIKV based on complete sequences of the orf2 genes encoding its viral structural proteins. Our results clearly showed a dynamic evolution of CHIKV circulating in Indonesia. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.