Identification of the 5 ' terminal sequence of the SAR-55 and MEX-14 strains of hepatitis E virus and confirmation that the genome is capped

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a nonenveloped virus with a genome of sing le-st randed, positive-sense RNA. The 5 ' terminal sequence of two HEV strains (S AR-55 and MEX-14) was determined by a 5 ' RNA ligase-mediated rapid amplifi cation of cDNA ends (RACE) method designed to select capped RNAs. The 5 ' n oncoding region of the SAR-55 and MEX-14 strains were amplified, confirming that the genomic RNA of HEV is capped. The 5 ' noncoding region of the SAR -55 strain had 25 nucleotides, which is two less than reported for the Burm ese strain, and that of the MEX-14 strain had 24 nucleotides, which is 21 m ore than reported previously [Huang et al., 1992]. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc .