[Genomic sequence of a new serotype duck hepatitis virus].
OBJECTIVE
A strain of highly pathogenic duck hepatitis virus was isolated in south China from a Pekin duck flock in 1999. No cross reaction with type 1 and 3 duck hepatitis virus was found by serum neutralization. We suggested the strain should be classified as a new serotype of duck hepatitis virus and named it as DHV-N G strain in our previous study. We wanted to reveal the evolution of this virus in molecular level and gene sequence differences between it and DHV-1 strains.


METHODS
We used RT-PCR and 5'-/3'-RACE to amplify the complete genome sequence of DHV-N G strain and compared it with other picornaviruses.


RESULTS
The genome of DHV-N G consists of 7774 nucleotides excluding a poly (A) tail of 12 nucleotides. It contains a single large open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 2251 amino acid residues. The length of 3' UTR of DHV-N G is 366 nucleotides, which is 52 nucleotides longer than that of DHV-1 C80 strain. Significant amino acid variation was found in the protein VP1, especially at the position of 140 - 221 comparing with DHV-1. The DHV-N G genome shares 72.8% - 73.4%, 96.3% - 96.5% and 78.3% similarity with DHV-1 strains, Korea's and Taiwanese DHV-N strains, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The genome structure of DHV-N G strain is obviously different with that of DHV-1 strains. The homologies of genome among the DHV-N group are variable, therein DHV-N G strain is more homologous with Korea's strains than with Taiwanese.
Shi
Shaohua
S
Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China. shaohua115@163.com
Cheng
Longfei
L
Fu
Guanghua
G
Chen
Hongmei
H
Chen
Zhen
Z
Yang
Weixing
W
Su
Jingliang
J
Huang
Yu
Y
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D004372:Ducks / Q000821:virology; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D004371:Hepatitis Virus, Duck / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006524:Hepatitis, Viral, Animal / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010850:Picornaviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins