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Volume 15, Number 5—May 2009
Research

Virulent Strain of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3, Japan

Kazuaki TakahashiComments to Author , Hiroaki Okamoto, Natsumi Abe, Manri Kawakami, Hiroyuki Matsuda, Satoshi Mochida, Hiroshi Sakugawa, Yoshiki Suginoshita, Seishiro Watanabe, Kazuhide Yamamoto, Yuzo Miyakawa, and Shunji Mishiro
Author affiliations: Toshiba General Hospital, Tokyo, Japan (K. Takahashi, N. Abe, S. Mishiro); Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Tochigi, Japan (H. Okamoto); Kurashiki Medical Center, Okayama, Japan (M. Kawakami); Matsuda Naika Clinic, Tottori, Japan (H. Matsuda); Saitama Medical University, Saitama, Japan (S. Mochida); Heart-Life Hospital, Okinawa, Japan (H. Sakugawa); Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan (Y. Suginoshita); Kagawa Prefectural Central Hospital, Kagawa, Japan (S. Watanabe); Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama (K. Yamamoto); Miyakawa Memorial Research Foundation, Tokyo (Y. Miyakawa)

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Table 2

Amino acid residues in 8 human and 5 swine hepatitis E virus isolates compared with those in the other genotype 3 isolates*

Amino acid position† Conserved in genotype 3 Human no.
 Swine no.
 Conserved in genotype 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5
ORF1
154 A A T A A T T A T A A T A T T
547 R Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q R
598 R Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q K
605 S P P P P P P P P P P P P P P
721 A T T T T T T T T T T T T T A
807 A S S S S S S S S S S S S S A
978 I V V V V V V V V V V V V V V
979 S K K K K K K K K K K K K K E
1135 I T T T T T T T T T T T T T V
1213‡ V V A A A A A A A A A A A A A
1246 Q H H H H H H H H H H H H H D
1469
 C
 S
 S
 S
 S
 S
 S
 S
 S
S
 S
 S
 S
 S
 C
ORF2
98 P S S P P S S P P P P S P S A
113 V/I T T T T T T T T T T T T T V
660
 S
 S
 S
 S
 F
 F
 F
 S
 F
S
 S
 S
 S
 S
 Y
ORF3
91 S N N N N N N N N N N N N N S
97 A A V V V V V V V V V V V V A
98 P Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q P

*Eighteen amino acids of 8 human isolates (JIO strain) and 5 swine isolates (swJ19 strain) not shared by other genotype 3 isolates. The 3 at positions 605, 978, and 1213 (boldface) were the same as the corresponding residues in genotype 4 isolates.
†Corresponds to the position in hepatitis E virus (HEV)-US2 (GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession no, AF060669) (12).
‡V1213A in the open reading frame (ORF) 1 polyprotein corresponds to V239A in the HEV-US2 genotype 3 isolate helicase domain within ORF1 (online Appendix Figure.

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