Molecular Tracing of Japan-indigenous Hepatitis E Viruses.
From: Department of Clinical Molecular Informative Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kawasumi, Mizuho, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan.
The Journal of general virology
- Publish Date: Apr 2006
- ISSN: 0022-1317
- Volume: 87
- Issue: Pt 4
- Pages: 949-54
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Tanaka Yasuhito, Takahashi Kazuaki, Orito Etsuro, et al. Molecular Tracing of Japan-indigenous Hepatitis E Viruses.. J. Gen. Virol. Apr 2006;87:949-54
Abstract
The ancestor(s) of apparently Japan-indigenous strains of Hepatitis E virus (HEV) was probably of foreign origin, but it remains unclear when and from where it made inroads. In this study, 24 genotype 3 and 24 genotype 4 HEV strains recovered in Japan each showed a significant cluster, clearly distinct from those of foreign strains, in the phylogenetic tree constructed from an 821 nt RNA polymerase gene fragment. The evolutionary rate, approximately 0.8 x 10(-3) nucleotide substitutions per site per year, enabled tracing of the demographic history of HEV and suggested that the ancestors of Japan-indigenous HEV had made inroads around 1900, when several kinds of Yorkshire pig were imported from the UK to Japan. Interestingly, the evolutionary growth of genotype 3 in Japan has been slow since the 1920s, whereas genotype 4 has spread rapidly since the 1980s. In conclusion, these data suggest that the indigenization and spread of HEV in Japan were associated with the popularization of eating pork.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases, Evolution, Molecular, Hepatitis E, Hepatitis E virus, Humans, Japan, Molecular Sequence Data, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Swine, Swine Diseases
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16528044
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