title: Evidence for recombination in natural populations of porcine circovirus type 2 in Hong Kong and mainland China.
abstract: Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) belongs to the family Circoviridae, and is the causative agent of post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) in pigs. In this study, phylogenetic analyses of three complete PCV2 genomic sequences from Hong Kong suggest that natural recombination happened among different lineages of PCV2. A preliminary investigation of the parental strains of these potential recombinants was carried out using bootscanning. Statistical significance of this recombination event was tested and positions of the potential recombination breakpoints were estimated in a maximum-likelihood framework. The recombinant breakpoints were estimated to be located within the origin of replication (ori) and replicase (rep) gene of PCV2. Interestingly, several GenBank sequences of PCV2 in mainland China were found to have a recombination pattern similar to that of the potential PCV2 recombinants from Hong Kong, implying that this recombinant genotype might already be widespread within mainland China.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Ching-Man
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Chung-Chau
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hon
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Tsan-Yuk
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Vince Yik-Yeung
authors.initials: VY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Creany Ka-Wai
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Tulio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Frederick Chi-Ching
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Leung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D018136:Circoviridae; D018173:Circoviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology; D017925:Circovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006723:Hong Kong; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral