Molecular characteristics of the genome of G I of Japanese encephalitis virus isolated from the specimen collected from viral encephalitis case for the first time / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the molecular basis of pathogenicity of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) by sequencing of complete nucleotide sequence and analyze the characteristics of full-length genome of genotype I Japanese encephalitis virus strains (GZ56) which was isolated from the first cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Japanese encephalitis patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The complete nucleotide sequence was obtained by RT-PCR and sequencing was performed directly. Bioinformatics was used to analyze the nucleic acid data, deduced amino acid sequence and phylogenetic trees.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The result of sequence analysis showed that the genome of GZ56 strains had 10 965 nucleotides, which coded for a 3432-amino acid polyprotein. Phyolngenetic analysis based on full-length genome showed that GZ56 strains and M-28 strains which were the first isolated from mosquitoes in Yunnan in 1977 were in the same evolutionary branch. GZ56 strains belongs to genotype I of Japanese encephalitis virus, the homology of genome ranged from 96.2% to 98.6% in nucleotide and from 98.2% to 99.7% in amino acid sequences respectively when compared with selected genotype I of JEV strains in GenBank. There were 11 amino acid divergences in E protein when compared with the JEV inactivated P3 strain but they are not the key virulence sites. However, there were 14 amino acid divergences in E protein when compared with the JEV live attenuated vaccine SA14-14-2 strain and 8 amino acid divergences were the key virulence sites.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This study indicated that the full length of genome GZ56 strains had no ignificant change. It can be hypothesized from genomic level that the currently available JEV vaccines(inactivated and live attenuated) can protect against GZ56 strains infection, meanwhile, the JEV live attenuated vaccine (SA14-14-2) formulation conferred higher levels of protection.</p>