Study on genetic and biological character of sporadic strains of acute HEV in Guangzhou

Partial nucleotide sequences (location 4522-4761) from ORF1 of sporadic strains (G93 1,G93 2,G93 3 and G93 4) of acute HEV in Guangzhou were detected, the positive PCR products were purified, cloned and sequenced. In the result, the nucleotide sequences of G93 1, G93 3 and G93 4 strain are all the same to each other, and have a homology of 100% with the Xin Jiang 87A and Burma strain respectively. The G93 2 strain is different, the homology of this part of sequence with them is only 79.9%, but it has a homology of 99.2% with X S1 strain obtained from the acute phase serum of a patient with hepatitis E in Xiamen. In addition, the biological character of the G93 2 strain was studied, the result was as same as the 87A strain's. All the results show there is a variant subgenotype of HEV in the South of China besides the similar strain with Xinjiang, but they have the same biological character.