African Journal of
Microbiology Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0808
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJMR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 5238

Full Length Research Paper

Isolation and molecular characterization of Japanese encephalitis virus GZ strain from piglets, China

D. Y. Tang1*, J. Liu1, F. Wang1, Z. Y. Zeng1, X. F. Luo2, P. Ma2 and C. Y. Li1
1College of Animal Science, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China. 2Guizhou Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, Guiyang, 550008, China
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 27 November 2012
  •  Published: 31 January 2013

Abstract

JEV GZ strain was isolated from piglets. The fragments of E and NS1 gene of GZ strain were successfully amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), then cloned into pMD19-T vector and sequenced. The homology of E and NS1gene of GZ strain and amino acid sequence were analyzed using the software’s DNAStar Clustal_1.81 and Mega. Compared with other JEV strains, the homology of E gene ranges from 88 to 99.1% and 97.6 to 99.8% on the level of nucleotide and amino acid sequences, respectively. The homology of NS1 gene ranges from 90.7 to 98.1% and 97.6 to 99.8% on the level of nucleotide and amino acid sequences, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of Egene of GZ strain shows that the isolate strain belongs to genotype III and it is most closely related to the VN50/Viet Nam/1989/Human brain strain. In conclusion, results of this study show that JEV GZ strain was a wild virulent strain. Genotype III of JEV still circulates in Guizhou Province and it is thus important for active surveillance on genotype III of JEV from the swine population. Future study should be aimed at investigating the efficacy of current widely used JEV vaccines against the GZ strain and control the JE of pigs in order to prevent human JE.

 

Key words: Japanese encephalitis virus, E gene, NS1 gene, cloning, sequence analysis