<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To sequence and analyze the complete
genome of two new
Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)
strains isolated from
mosquitoes collected in Hubei province in 2008, and to understand the molecular
biological characteristics of JEV in this area.</p><p><b>
METHODS</b>RT-PCR was used to amplify the fragments of HBZG08-09
strain and HBZG08-55
strain with 16 pairs overlapping primers after they had been recovered and identified, then the full-length
genome was obtained by sequencing and splicing.
Biological sequence alignment,
nucleotide and
amino acid sequence analysis,
phylogenetic analysis and
analysis of
amino acid differences were performed by the
software of Clustal X (1.83), MegAlign, Mega (4.0) and Genedoc (3.2).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The
genome of two new
strains were both 10 965
nucleotides in length with a single
open reading frame from 96 to 10 392
coding for a 3432
amino acid poly-
protein, the homology of
nucleotide and
amino acid sequence between two isolates were 98.2% and 99.7% respectively. Further study showed that the new
strains were both
belonging to
genotype I. Two new
strains were most closely related to isolates obtained from Henan and Zhejiang province in recent years. Compared with the live
attenuated vaccine strain SA-14-14-2 in
China, HBZG08-09
strain had 82
amino acid divergence; HBZG08-55 had 84
amino acid divergences. But the
amino acid difference occurred in sites were not the key ones affecting the
toxicity or antigenic of JEV.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Two new JEV isolates were both
belonging to
genotype I, and the key sites of
amino acid were not changed.</p>