Yy. Zhang et al., PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF HEPATITIS-D VIRUSES INDICATING A NEW GENOTYPE-I SUBGROUP AMONG AFRICAN ISOLATES, Journal of clinical microbiology, 34(12), 1996, pp. 3023-3030
Genetic analysis was performed on 13 hepatitis D virus (HDV) isolates
from Ethiopia, Somalia, Jordan, Kuwait, Bulgaria, Moldavia, and Sweden
. The complete nucleotide sequence and genomic organization are descri
bed for the first time for two African HDV isolates. Phylogenetic anal
ysis showed all the African isolates to be intrarelated and to form a
novel group within HDV genotype I; the suggested designation for this
group is IC. The genetic distance to previously described type I isola
tes was about 0.15, The HDV genotype I isolates (total of 22 examined)
phylogenetically formed three clusters, each of them corresponding to
certain geographic regions; the ''western'' group consisted of six HD
V isolates from western Europe and the United States plus one from Kuw
ait; the ''eastern'' group consisted of two isolates from Moldavia and
one each from Bulgaria, Nauru, mainland China, and Taiwan; and the ''
African-Middle East'' group consisted of six HDV isolates from Ethiopi
a and one each from Somalia, Jordan, and Lebanon.