Genetic diversity and recombination of murine noroviruses in immunocompromised mice

Murine noroviruses (MNV) are newly identified pathogens which infect laboratory mice. In this study, we found a high prevalence (64.3%) of MNV in various breeding colonies of immunocompromised, transgenic and wild-type mouse lines. All mice survived infection with no signs of clinical disease. Faeces samples were collected from animals housed in two separate laboratory mouse colonies in Berlin, Germany, and screened using quantitative reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. We have determined the complete nucleotide sequences of 3 novel MNV strains. Furthermore, we sequenced two subgenomic regions within open reading frames (ORFs) 1 and 2 that are suitable for genotyping. Sequence analysis of the full-length and partial genomes obtained from naturally infected mice yielded valuable data on genetic diversity of murine noroviruses. The discordance of genotype affiliation of some MNVs shown in ORF1 and ORF2 suggests intertypic recombination events in vivo.