title: Full-genome nucleotide sequence of a hepatitis E virus strain that may be indigenous to Japan.
abstract: We identified hepatitis E virus (HEV) RNA in serum from a Japanese patient with acute hepatitis, who had never been abroad. The full-genome nucleotide sequence of the HEV isolate (JRA1) from this patient was composed of 7227 nucleotides excepting the poly(A) tail and had ORF1 coding for 1703 amino acids (aa), ORF2 coding for 660 aa, and ORF3 coding for 122 aa. This Japanese strain showed approximately 87% nucleotide similarity to human and swine strains reported from the United States, while it had only 73-76% similarity to Asian and Mexican strains. Here we report the characteristics of the HEV-JRA1 isolate, which might be the first example of an indigenous strain(s) of HEV in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Toshiba General Hospital, 6-3-22 Higashi Oh-i, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140-8522, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hatahara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mishiro
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D011061:Poly A / Q000737:chemistry; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D011061:Poly A