Dengue Virus Infection

Like other Flaviviridae, DENV is an enveloped, positive-sense RNA (+ssRNA) virus (reviewed in Rodenhuis-Zybert et al., 2010). Mature dengue virions contain genomic +ssRNA and three structural proteins, C, M, and E (reviewed in Rodenhuis-Zybert et al., 2010). Protein C is the capsid protein which encapsulates genomic +ssRNA, forming the ribonucleocapsid (reviewed in Rodenhuis-Zybert et al., 2010). Proteins M and E, 180 copies of each, are anchored in the host cell-derived viral envelope (reviewed in Rodenhuis-Zybert et al., 2010).

As DENV 2 serotype is the most prevalent, and its strain Dengue virus 2 Thailand/16681/84 is the most frequently used in molecular studies (tied with strain NGC; based on Reactome-conducted analysis of published literature), reference proteins and RNA molecules specific to this strain were used to annotate events in this pathway. In cases where no direct experimental evidence pertaining to Dengue virus 2 Thailand/16681/84 strain was available, viral life cycle events were manually inferred from related dengue strains, as indicated.