Exceptional genetic variability of hepatitis B virus indicates that Rwanda is east of an emerging African genotype E/A1 divide
✍ Scribed by Judith M. Hübschen; Jules Mugabo; Cécile Alexandra Peltier; Jean-Claude Karasi; Aurélie Sausy; Pierre Kirpach; Vic Arendt; Claude P. Muller
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 106 KB
- Volume
- 81
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0146-6615
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
In Western Africa, hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype E predominates throughout a vast crescent spanning from Senegal to Namibia and at least to the Central African Republic to the East. Although from most of the eastern parts of sub‐Saharan Africa only limited sets of strains have been characterized, these belong predominantly to genotype A. To study how far the genotype E crescent extends to the East, a larger number of HBV strains from Rwanda were analyzed. Phylogenetic analysis of 45 S fragment sequences revealed strains of genotypes A (n = 30), D (n = 10), C (n = 4), and B (n = 1). Twelve genotype A sequences formed a new cluster clearly separated from the reference strains of the known sub‐genotypes. Thus, with four genotypes and at least six sub‐genotypes and a new cluster of genotype A strains, HBV shows an exceptional genetic variability in this small country, unprecedented in sub‐Saharan Africa. Despite this exceptional genetic variability, not a single genotype E virus was found indicating that this country does not belong to the genotype E crescent, but is east of an emerging African genotype E/A1 divide. J. Med. Virol. 81:435–440, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.