Identification of natural recombination in duck hepatitis B virus.
Due to its high similarity to human hepatitis B virus (HBV), duck HBV (DHBV) is often used as an important model for HBV research. While inter-genotypic recombination of HBV is common, it has not been reported with DHBV. In this study, 32 non-redundant DHBV complete genomes were analyzed using phylogenetic methods and classified into two clusters, corresponding to the 'Chinese' and 'Western country' branches previously reported based on geographical distribution. One 'Chinese' branch strain was isolated in Australia and three 'Western country' branch strains were isolated in China, suggesting cross-geographical distribution of both branches. Recombination analyses of the 32 DHBV genomes identified two possible inter-genotypic recombination events with high confidence value. These recombination events occurred between the lineages represented, respectively, by the Chinese isolate GD3 (AY536371, 'Chinese' branch) and the American isolate DHBV16 (K01834, 'Western country' branch), giving rise to two Chinese recombinant isolates CH4 (EU429324) and CH6 (EU429326). The identification of inter-genotypic recombination among circulating DHBV isolates suggests the usefulness of DHBV as a model for studying the mechanism of HBV recombination.
Liu
Wei
W
Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology, Institute of Medical Microbiology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Zhai
Jianwei
J
Liu
Jing
J
Xie
Youhua
Y
D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D004372:Ducks / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015611:Hepatitis B Virus, Duck / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D004279:DNA, Viral