Mnm. Mangada et T. Takegami, Molecular characterization of the Japanese encephalitis virus representative immunotype strain JaGAr 01, VIRUS RES, 59(1), 1999, pp. 101-112
We determined the full genomic sequence of the Japanese encephalitis virus
JaGAr 01 strain and its predicted amino acid sequence. Nucleotide sequence
comparison with ten fully sequenced JE strains shows a homology range from
89.62 to 99.49%. Amino acid sequence homologies range from 96.85 to 99.74%.
Comparison of amino acid sequences shows a unique amino acid, arginine, fo
r JaGAr 01 at position 123 of the E-protein, while the eight other strains
contained serine. Secondary structure prediction by free energy minimizatio
n shows a unique structure for JaGAr 01 that includes an RNA segment that i
s conserved for all flaviviruses. Speculation is made about the role these
results may play in the replication and antigenic characteristics of JaGAr
01. Phylogenetic analyses of the E-protein of JaGAr 01 together with 35 oth
er JE strains showed diversity in amino acid characteristics between the pr
ototype strains Nakayama, JaGAr 01 and Beijing-l. Phylogenetic trees comput
ed by neighbor joining and Fitch-Margoliash analysis of nucleic acid and pr
otein sequences showed Nakayama and Beijing in one cluster different from J
aGAr 01. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.