Click here to go to the epidemiology section to learn more about virus transmission. Viral attachment is dependent on envelope glycoproteins, although specific cellular receptors have not been identified yet.
Viruses enter the cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis and replicate in the cytoplasm.
The virus only partially stops normal mammalian RNA synthesis, and does not affect arthropod cell function. Translation of the genome produces a single polyprotein which is then cleaved to structural and non-structural peptides. Two lineages of WNV are proposed based on these criteria. The isolate history of strains used in this tree and the alignment used for analysis are available upon request from the authors. Origin of the West Nile Virus Responsible for an Outbreak of Encephalitis in the Northeastern United States.