Reconsidering the classification of tick-borne encephalitis virus within the Siberian subtype gives new insights into its evolutionary history

Tick-borne encephalitis is widespread in Eurasia and transmitted by Ixodes ticks. Classification of its causative agent, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), includes three subtypes, namely Far-Eastern, European, and Siberian (TBEV-Sib), as well as a group of 886-84-like strains with uncertain taxonomic status. TBEV-Sib is subdivided into three phylogenetic lineages: Baltic, Asian, and South-Siberian. A reason to reconsider TBEV-Sib classification was the analysis of 186 nucleotide sequences of an E gene fragment submitted to GenBank during the last two years. Within the South-Siberian lineage, we have identified a distinct group with prototype strains Aina and Vasilchenko as an individual lineage named East-Siberian. The analysis of reclassified lineages has promoted a new model of the evolutionary history of TBEV-Sib lineages and TBEV-Sib as a whole. Moreover, we present arguments supporting separation of 886-84-like strains into an individual TBEV subtype, which we propose to name Baikalian (TBEV-Bkl).