Cloning and Sequence Analysis of the 1.3 kb eDNA Fragment from Open Reading Frame 2(ORF2)of Hepatitis E Virus(HEV)

The serum from patients infected with Hepatitis E was prepared, the RNA of Hepatitis E virus was purified. The interested cDNA fragment (1.3?kb) was obtained by RT PCR, cloned in to the plasmid pUC18 and sequenced by the dideoxynucleotide method (fluorescein labeled dNTP). The result of sequencing suggested that the cDNA fragment was 1?309?bp, its adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine were 249 (19.2%), 318(24.29%), 339(25.9%) and 403(30.79%), respectively. The nucleic acid sequences of the cDNA were 92% to 93.3% homologous to the Indian and Burmese strains, 90.7% and 77.4% homologous to Chad and Mexican strains. The ORF2 of HEV is relatively stable between the Asian strains.