EXISTING VARIATIONS ON THE GENE STRUCTURE OF HEPATITIS-E VIRUS-STRAINS FROM SOME REGIONS OF CHINA .2.

The isolation and identification of the 87A strain of hepatitis E viru s (HEV) by means of cell culture have been described previously. This paper reports the nucleotide sequence of a portion of this HEV strain. The RNA extracted from the supernatants of the different passages of the 87A strain cultured in the A549 cell line was reverse-transcribed (RT) to cDNA, and then the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplificati on was carried out using the primers of HEV ET1.1 region. The PCR prod ucts from 1) the supernatant of the infected cells at the fourth passa ge, 2) the virus concentrated by polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitati on at the tenth passage, and 3) the virus purified by a sucrose gradie nt at the tenth passage were sequenced. In addition, three other PCR p roducts obtained from sera of acute hepatitis E patients in Beijing (B -9) and Guangzhou (G-9 and G-20) were also sequenced. The nucleotide s equences of the above four strains of HEV (located in the genome from positions 4545-4754) were compared to those of some reported HEV strai ns. The nucleotide sequences of the B-9 strain and the 87A strain were similar to the Burmese strain and may belong to the same branch of HE V. The nucleotide sequences of the G-9 strain and the G-20 strain were a novel and unique branch. The Chinese HEV strains are multiplex and variable in gene structure. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.