Open AccessNew Complex Recombinant Genotype of Hepatitis B Virus Identified in Vietnam
Author(s) -
Tran Thien Tuan Huy,
Trinh Thi Bich Ngoc,
Kenji Abe
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.617
H-Index - 292
eISSN - 1070-6321
pISSN - 0022-538X
DOI - 10.1128/jvi.02556-07
Subject(s) - biology , genotype , phylogenetic tree , virology , genetics , clade , recombination , strain (injury) , genome , recombinant dna , hepatitis b virus , gene , virus , phylogenetics , anatomy
A novel variant of hepatitis B virus was identified in Vietnam. This strain (HBV-VH24) had a novel intergenotypic recombination between genotypes A, C, and G. VH24 showed high similarity (98.3 to 98.9%) to the “aberrant strains” among Vietnamese isolates reported by Hannoun et al. (C. Hannoun et al., J. Gen. Virol. 81:2267-2272, 2000) and also had similar breakpoints of recombination. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome of these strains formed a separate clade. Furthermore, their pre-S/S gene-encoded seven unique conserved amino acid residues were not present in other genotypes. These findings support the designation of the new genotype I.