Identification of the 5′ terminal sequence of the SAR-55 and MEX-14 strains of hepatitis E virus and confirmation that the genome is capped

✍ Scribed by Mingdong Zhang; Robert H. Purcell; Suzanne U. Emerson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 86 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.2032

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a nonenveloped virus with a genome of single‐stranded, positive‐sense RNA. The 5′ terminal sequence of two HEV strains (SAR‐55 and MEX‐14) was determined by a 5′ RNA ligase‐mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) method designed to select capped RNAs. The 5′ noncoding region of the SAR‐55 and MEX‐14 strains were amplified, confirming that the genomic RNA of HEV is capped. The 5′ noncoding region of the SAR‐55 strain had 25 nucleotides, which is two less than reported for the Burmese strain, and that of the MEX‐14 strain had 24 nucleotides, which is 21 more than reported previously [Huang et al., 1992]. J. Med. Virol. 65:293–295, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.