title: Full-length sequences of two hepatitis E virus isolates representing an Eastern China-indigenous subgroup of genotype 4.
abstract: Although the majority of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections in Japan are 'domestic' due to the presence of indigenous strains, there are still 'imported' cases as well. Among 83 patients with non-A, non-B and non-C acute liver diseases admitted to Saitama Medical University Hospital, 7 (8.4%) were positive for serum HEV-RNA, of whom 2 had a recent history of traveling to China, one to Xian and another to Shanghai. We determined the full-genome sequences of HEV from these 2 patients (isolate names are JKO-ChiSai98c and JYI-ChiSai01c, genotype 4 in both) for phylogenetic analyses. Initially, when compared only to the 13 full-genome sequences of genotype 4 so far reported, our 2 isolates were thought to be novel strains because they showed a significant genetic difference from the sequences known to date. However, when we included a set of short sequences (150 nt) recently reported from China in the comparison, we found that our 2 isolates represent a subgroup of genotype 4, which seems to be restricted to eastern China. In conclusion, the 2 HEV isolates reported here could serve as full-genome prototypes for an eastern China-indigenous subgroup of the genotype 4 HEV.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saitama Medical University, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: Masami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koike
authors.forename: Kazuaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Shunji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mishiro
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Mie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inao
authors.forename: Sumiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagoshi
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mochida
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D016752:Hepatitis E virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014195:Travel
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral