Fifty years after the first identification of Toscana virus in Italy: Genomic characterization of viral isolates within lineage A and aminoacidic markers of evolution

Toscana Virus (TosV) was firstly isolated from phlebotomine in our Institute about fifty years ago. Later, in 1984–1985, TosV infection, although asymptomatic in most cases, was shown to cause disease in humans, mainly fever and meningitis. By means of genetic analysis of part of M segment, we describe 3 new viral isolates obtained directly from cerebrospinal fluid or sera samples of patients diagnosed with TosV infection in July 2020 in Tuscany region. Phylogenesis was used to propose the clustering of TosV lineage A strains in 3 main groups, whereas deep mutational analysis based on 12 amino acid positions, allowed the identification of 9 putative strains. We discuss deep mutational analysis as a method to identify molecular signature of host adaptation and/or pathogenesis.