TY - JOUR
T1 - Molecular characterization of a novel hepatitis E virus (HEV) strain obtained from a wild boar in Japan that is highly divergent from the previously recognized HEV strains
AU - Takahashi, Masaharu
AU - Nishizawa, Tsutomu
AU - Nagashima, Shigeo
AU - Jirintai, Suljid
AU - Kawakami, Manri
AU - Sonoda, Yoshihide
AU - Suzuki, Tadahiro
AU - Yamamoto, Shogo
AU - Shigemoto, Kazuhiro
AU - Ashida, Kozo
AU - Sato, Yukihiro
AU - Okamoto, Hiroaki
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank all of the physicians and hunters who were involved in the collection of serum and/or liver specimens from wild boars. This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan .
PY - 2014/2/13
Y1 - 2014/2/13
N2 - Although a consensus classification system for hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes is currently unavailable, HEV variants (JBOAR135-Shiz09 and wbJOY_06) from wild boars (Sus scrofa leucomystax) have provisionally been classified into two novel genotypes (5 and 6). While performing a survey of HEV infections among 566 wild boars that were captured in Japan between January 2010 and August 2013, we found 24 boars (4.2%) with ongoing HEV infections: 13 had genotype 3 HEV, 10 had genotype 4 HEV and the remaining boar possessed a novel HEV variant (designated wbJNN_13). The entire wbJNN_13 genome comprised 7247 nucleotides excluding the poly(A) tail, and was highly divergent from known genotype 1 to 4 HEV isolates derived from humans, swine, wild boars, deer, mongoose and rabbits by 22.4-28.2%, JBOAR135-Shiz09 and wbJOY_06 by 19.6-21.9% and rat, ferret, bat and avian HEV isolates by 40.9-46.1% over the entire genome. Phylogenetic trees confirmed that wbJNN_13 is distantly related to all known HEV isolates. A Simplot analysis revealed no significant recombination among the existing HEV strains. These results indicate the presence of at least three genetic lineages of presumably boar-indigenous HEV strains. Further studies to fully understand the extent of the genomic heterogeneity of HEV variants infecting wild boars are warranted.
AB - Although a consensus classification system for hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes is currently unavailable, HEV variants (JBOAR135-Shiz09 and wbJOY_06) from wild boars (Sus scrofa leucomystax) have provisionally been classified into two novel genotypes (5 and 6). While performing a survey of HEV infections among 566 wild boars that were captured in Japan between January 2010 and August 2013, we found 24 boars (4.2%) with ongoing HEV infections: 13 had genotype 3 HEV, 10 had genotype 4 HEV and the remaining boar possessed a novel HEV variant (designated wbJNN_13). The entire wbJNN_13 genome comprised 7247 nucleotides excluding the poly(A) tail, and was highly divergent from known genotype 1 to 4 HEV isolates derived from humans, swine, wild boars, deer, mongoose and rabbits by 22.4-28.2%, JBOAR135-Shiz09 and wbJOY_06 by 19.6-21.9% and rat, ferret, bat and avian HEV isolates by 40.9-46.1% over the entire genome. Phylogenetic trees confirmed that wbJNN_13 is distantly related to all known HEV isolates. A Simplot analysis revealed no significant recombination among the existing HEV strains. These results indicate the presence of at least three genetic lineages of presumably boar-indigenous HEV strains. Further studies to fully understand the extent of the genomic heterogeneity of HEV variants infecting wild boars are warranted.
KW - Genotype
KW - Hepatitis E virus
KW - Phylogeny
KW - Wild boar
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U2 - 10.1016/j.virusres.2013.12.014
DO - 10.1016/j.virusres.2013.12.014
M3 - Article
C2 - 24370869
AN - SCOPUS:84892955288
SN - 0168-1702
VL - 180
SP - 59
EP - 69
JO - Virus Research
JF - Virus Research
ER -
