Complete genome sequence analysis of Japanese encephalitis virus isolated from a horse in India.

Harisankar Singha, Baldev R Gulati, Prabhat Kumar, Birendra K Singh, Nitin Virmani, Raj K Singh

Equine Health Unit, National Research Centre on Equines, Sirsa Road, Hisar, 125 001 Haryana, India.

Archives of virology 2013 Jan

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The complete genome of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) strain JEV/eq/India/H225/2009(H225), isolated from an infected horse in India, was sequenced and compared to previously published JEV genomes. H225 genome was 10,977-nucleotides long, comprising a single ORF of 10,299-nucleotides, a 5'-UTR of 95 nucleotides and a 3'-UTR of 582 nucleotides. The H225 genome showed high levels of sequence identity with 47 fully sequenced JEV genomes, ranging from 99.3 % to 75.5 % for nucleotides and 99.2 % to 91.5 % for amino acid sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the full-length sequence indicated that the H225 strain belongs to genotype III and is closely related to the Indian JEV strain Vellore P20778. A comparison of amino acids associated with neurovirulence in the E proteins and non-structural proteins of known virulent and attenuated JEV strains suggested H225 to be a highly virulent strain. This is the first report of whole-genome sequencing of a genotype III JEV genome isolated from equines.

Citation

Harisankar Singha, Baldev R Gulati, Prabhat Kumar, Birendra K Singh, Nitin Virmani, Raj K Singh. Complete genome sequence analysis of Japanese encephalitis virus isolated from a horse in India. Archives of virology. 2013 Jan;158(1):113-22