title: New complex recombinant genotype of hepatitis B virus identified in Vietnam.
abstract: A novel variant of hepatitis B virus was identified in Vietnam. This strain (HBV-VH24) had a novel intergenotypic recombination between genotypes A, C, and G. VH24 showed high similarity (98.3 to 98.9%) to the "aberrant strains" among Vietnamese isolates reported by Hannoun et al. (C. Hannoun et al., J. Gen. Virol. 81:2267-2272, 2000) and also had similar breakpoints of recombination. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome of these strains formed a separate clade. Furthermore, their pre-S/S gene-encoded seven unique conserved amino acid residues were not present in other genotypes. These findings support the designation of the new genotype I.
authors: Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan.
authors: Thien Tuan Huy
authors: TT
authors: Tran
authors: Thi Ngoc
authors: TN
authors: Trinh
authors: Kenji
authors: K
authors: Abe
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology