| Title | Genetic Analysis of the Capsid Region of Norovirus GII.4 Variants Isolated in South Korea |
|---|---|
| Author | Ju-Eun Kim 1, Sung-Geun Lee 2, Han-Gil Cho 3, Sang-Ha Han 1, Lae-Hyung Kang 1, Youn-Mi Lee 4, Chul-Jong Park 4, and Soon-Young Paik 1* |
| Address | 1Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Republic of Korea, 2Korea Zoonosis Research Institute, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Republic of Korea, 3Division of Virology, Gyeonggi Provincial Research Institute of Public Health and Environment, Suwon 440-290, Republic of Korea, 4Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Republic of Korea |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 52(5),427-434, 2014, |
| DOI | DOI 10.1007/s12275-014-3538-x |
| Key Words | norovirus, GII.4 variant, sequence analysis |
| Abstract | Norovirus is one of the major causes of non-bacterial gas-troenteritis in humans. The aim of this study was to analyze the amino acid variation of open reading frame 2 of GII.4 variants in South Korea during the period from November 2006 to December 2012. Sixty-nine complete nucleotide se-quences of open reading frame 2 were obtained from 113 GII.4 strains. The GII.4 2006b variants were detected pre-dominantly between 2006 and 2009; however, new GII.4 variants, which were termed the 2010 variant and the 2012 variant, emerged in 2010 and 2012, respectively. The num-ber of GII.4 2006b variants steadily decreased until 2012, whereas the number of gastroenteritis cases caused by the new variants increased between 2010 and 2012. The amino acid sequence in the ORF2 region obtained in this study was compared with other GII.4 variants isolated in various countries. Amino acid variations were observed primarily at epitope sites and the surrounding regions. Amino acids 294, 359, 393, and 413 of the P2 subdomain were the most variable sites among the GII.4 variants. The information in this study can be useful in basic research to predict the emergence and determine the genetic functions of new GII.4 variants. |