Novel hepatitis B virus subgenotype A6 in African-Belgian patients

Korte inhoud:BACKGROUND: Genome diversity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is prominent among DNA viruses; which, allowed the virus to be genetically classified into eight genotypes and several subgenotypes. OBJECTIVE: To introduce and to characterize a novel subgenotype HBV, classified as A6. STUDY DESIGN: HBV full-length genomes were isolated and sequenced from three African-Belgian patients chronically infected with the virus. Using phylogenetic reconstruction and genetic distance calculation, the evolutionary relationships of the novel strains were investigated. RESULTS: Phylogenetic analysis based on complete genome sequences of genotype A strains revealed distinct clusters supported by high bootstrap values. The three African-Belgian strains clustered separately from the other known A subgenotypes (A1-A5) with maximal bootstrap support (100%). The mean inter-subgenotypic nucleotide divergence over the complete genome sequence between the novel A6 strains and A1-A5 was higher than 4%. CONCLUSION: Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome sequences yielded maximal bootstrap value support for nodes that establish the new lineage as a novel subgenotype. In addition, nucleotide divergence more than 4% based on full-length genome of the virus, clearly demonstrated that the three African-Belgian strains belonged to a novel subgenotype of HBV, which was assigned as "A6". Noteworthy, the phylogeny of genotype A demonstrated that the A6 is a basal lineage that diverged earlier from the other African subgenotypes of genotype A.

Jaar van publicatie:2010

Trefwoorden:Microbiologie

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:1

Auteurs:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Reviewstatus:Peer-reviewed