Characterization of Japanese swine and human hepatitis E virus isolates of genotype IV with 99 % identity over the entire genome.
The full-length genomic sequences were determined of Japanese swine and human hepatitis E virus (HEV) isolates (swJ13-1 and HE-JA1, respectively) with 100 % identity in the partial sequence of open reading frame (ORF) 2 (ORF2, 412 nt). swJ13-1 was isolated from a 4-month-old farm pig born in Hokkaido, Japan, in 2002 and HE-JA1 was recovered from a 55-year-old patient who lived in Hokkaido and who had contracted sporadic acute hepatitis E in 1997. Both isolates consisted of 7240 nt, excluding the poly(A) tail, and contained three ORFs (ORFs 1-3) that encoded proteins of 1707, 674 and 114 aa. The overall nucleotide sequence identity between them was 99.0 % and the deduced amino acid sequence identities of ORFs 1-3 were 99.8, 100 and 100 %, respectively. The high degree of genomic similarity observed between swine and human HEV isolates in a restricted area of Japan further supports the finding that sporadic hepatitis E in Japan is a zoonosis.
Nishizawa
Tsutomu
T
Immunology Division and Division of Molecular Virology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi-Ken 329-0498, Japan.
Takahashi
Masaharu
M
Immunology Division and Division of Molecular Virology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi-Ken 329-0498, Japan.
Mizuo
Hitoshi
H
Department of Internal Medicine, Kin-ikyo Chuo Hospital, Hokkaido 007-0870, Japan.
Miyajima
Haruko
H
Japanese Red Cross Saitama Blood Center, Saitama-Ken 338-0001, Japan.
Gotanda
Yuhko
Y
Japanese Red Cross Saitama Blood Center, Saitama-Ken 338-0001, Japan.
Okamoto
Hiroaki
H
Immunology Division and Division of Molecular Virology, Jichi Medical School, Tochigi-Ken 329-0498, Japan.
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006524:Hepatitis, Viral, Animal / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000821:virology