title: Genetic variability of hepatitis A virus strain HAF-203 isolated in Brazil and expression of the VP1 gene in Escherichia coli.
abstract: The hepatitis A virus (HAV) HAF-203 strain was isolated from an acute case of HAV infection. The primary isolation of HAF-203 in Brazil and its adaptation to the FRhK-4 cell lineage allowed the production of large amounts of viral particles enabling molecular characterization of the first HAV isolate in Brazil. The aim of our study was to determine the nucleotide sequence of the HAF-203 strain genome, compare it to other HAV genomes and highlight its genetic variability. The complete nucleotide sequence of the HAF-203 strain (7472 nucleotides) was compared to those obtained earlier by others for other HAV isolates. These analyses revealed 19 HAF-specific nucleotide sequence differences with 10 amino acid substitutions. Most of the non-conservative changes were located at VP1, 2C, and 3D genes, but the 3B region was the most variable. The availability of HAF-203 complementary DNA was useful for the production of the recombinant VP1 protein, which is a major determinant of viral infectivity. This recombinant protein was shown by enzyme-linked immunoassay and blotting, to be immunogenic and resemble the native protein, therefore suggesting its value as a reagent for incorporation into diagnostic tests.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Hepatites Virais, Departamento de Virologia, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz, Av. Brasil 4365, 21040-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. marcialb@ioc.fiocruz.br
authors.forename: Marcia L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Baptista
authors.forename: Messias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Maria Amélia de
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Clara Ft
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Ana Maria C
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Galler
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001938:Brazil; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D030041:Hepatitis A virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral; D011817:Rabbits; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; C096539:VP1 protein, hepatitis A virus; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins