A genotype IV hepatitis E virus strain that may be indigenous to Changchun, China

We sequenced the RNA genome of hepatitis E virus (HEV) recovered from an acute hepatitis patient living in Changchun, China. The HEV-CCC220 isolate thus obtained was 7,193 nt in length and contained ORF1 (5,121 nt, 1,706 aa), ORF2 (2,025 nt, 674 aa), and ORF3 (345 nt, 114 aa) plus uncompleted 5' and 3' untranslated regions. When compared with full-genome isolates so far reported, the CCC220 isolate segregated to genotype IV although the nucleotide similarity to the previous genotype IV isolates was only 83.9-85.6%. Comparison of a partial sequence (300 nt) within the ORF2 between the genotype IV isolates from China, Taiwan and Japan also indicated the phylogenetic uniqueness of the CCC220 isolate: even the highest homology was less than 90%. These findings suggest that the CCC220 isolate might represent HEV strains that are indigenous to Changchun, China. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel.