title: Surveillance of human astrovirus circulation in Italy 2002-2005: emergence of lineage 2c strains.
abstract: By screening faecal samples collected over four consecutive years (2002-2005) from hospitalized children with diarrhoea in Palermo, Italy, astroviruses (HAstVs) were detected in 3.95% of the patients. The predominant type circulating was HAstV-1 but, in 2002, only HAstV-2 and -4 were identified. Interestingly, the HAstVs-2 detected appeared to be consistently different in 5′ end of their open reading frame 2 from the previously described subtypes. These novel type 2 strains were included in a new 2c lineage based on the phylogenetic analysis and the presence of nine peculiar substitutions.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze per la Promozione della Salute G. D'Alessandro, Sezione di Microbiologia, Università di Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Grazia
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Platia
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rotolo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colomba
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Martella
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Giammanco
mesh_terms: D019350:Astroviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D002648:Child; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D001257:Mamastrovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral