title: Electrophoretic study of the genome of human rotavirus from Maceió, Brazil.
abstract: Rotaviruses were detected by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) in 53 (13.3%) of 397 fecal samples from children with acute gastroenteritis in the city of Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic (PAGE) patterns characteristic of rotavirus double-stranded RNA were detected in 51 (96.2%) of the 53 EIA-positive samples. Of the RNA-positive samples, 1 (2%) was classified as subgroup 1 (short profile), 49 (96%) as subgroup 2 (long profile) and 1 (2%) could not be classified because of the absence of bands 10 and 11. The strains of subgroup 2 showed a great degree of electrophoretic heterogeneity and could be divided into several subcategories. Two samples showed splitting of one of the genome segments. PAGE, a very sensitive method capable of identifying rotavirus RNA genomes, has demonstrated that human rotaviruses detected in Maceió present many differences in RNA electrophoretic patterns.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D001938:Brazil; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000382:microbiology; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral