Genetic Characteristics of the G Gene of RSV in Zhejiang Province

Respiratory syncytial virus(RSV) was isolated from nasopharyngeal aspirates(NPA) collected of children suffering acute lower respiratory tract infection in the Children’s hospital of Zhejiang province in the winter of 2004. The isolated strains were identified by RT-PCR. The whole region of the G gene of the isolates was sequenced and phylogenetic trees were constructed by comparison with RSV standard strains and reference strains. Results showed that four RSV strains were isolated. The identities of the G gene and the G protein among the four isolates were 98.05% and 97.06%, respectively. The identity of the G gene of the four isolated strains with the standard A type of RSV strain was 95.69% and the identity was 78.7% with the standard B type of RSV strain; the sequence of the 3’hypervariable region of the G gene was identified with the GA2 subtype of RSV. It was suggested that the GA2 subtype of RSV was predominant in Zhejiang province during the winter of 2004.