Summary auto-generated
Group B rotaviruses (GBRs) are recently recognized causative agents of gastroenteritis in humans and various mammals, but their molecular characterization has been limited by difficulty cultivating them in cell culture. This study determined and compared the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of genes 9 and 11 from two GBR strains: IDIR (rat-derived) and ADRV (human-derived). Gene 11 is 643 base pairs encoding 174 amino acids, while gene 9 is 804 base pairs encoding 246 amino acids. Nucleotide sequence similarity between the two strains was 71.9% for gene 11 and 60.6% for gene 9. At the amino acid level, similarity was 66.5% for gene 11 and 51.2% for gene 9. The terminal regions of gene 11 showed high conservation between strains, whereas gene 9 terminal regions were less conserved. The findings indicate that GBR strains are more genetically divergent than different strains of group A rotavirus, which typically share greater than 82% amino acid identity in corresponding genes. The sequence diversity suggests GBRs represent a distinct and more heterogeneous group requiring further molecular characterization across multiple genomic segments and additional strains.
Key findings
- Gene 11 sequences between IDIR and ADRV GBR strains showed 71.9% nucleotide and 66.5% amino acid identity, with highly conserved terminal regions
- Gene 9 sequences demonstrated lower similarity at 60.6% nucleotide and 51.2% amino acid identity between the two GBR strains
- GBR strains are more distantly related than group A rotavirus strains, which typically share >82% amino acid sequence identity in corresponding genes
- IDIR gene 9 shows only 18% amino acid identity to the group A rotavirus VP7 structural protein, suggesting IDIR may be more evolutionarily distant from group A rotaviruses than ADRV
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Abstract
Group B rotaviruses (GBRs) were recognized recently as causative agents of gastroenteritis. Investigations into the relatedness of various heterologous GBR strains have been hindered by the difficulty of growing these viruses in cell culture. Viral RNA extracted from experimentally infected rats used to prepare cDNA clones. From these, the nucleotide sequences of genes 9 and 11 of the IDIR strain of GBR were determined and compared with the corresponding sequences of the human ADRV strain of GBR. IDIR gene 11 is 643 bp in length with a single open reading frame (ORF) encoding 174 amino acids; IDIR gene 9 is 804 bp in length with a single ORF encoding 246 amino acids. Comparison of the IDIR sequences with those of ADRV showed that nucleotide sequence similarity was 60.6% and 71.9% for genes 9 and 11, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence similarity was 51.2% for the gene 9 and 66.5% for the gene 11 product. This sequence diversity indicates that GBRs are more distantly related than strains of group A rotavirus.