Steele A D, van Niekerk M C, Geyer A, Bos P, Alexander J J
Department of Virology, Medical University of Southern Africa, Pretoria.
J Med Virol. 1992 Sep;38(1):22-6. doi: 10.1002/jmv.1890380106.
Stool specimens were collected from healthy neonates at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital in the winters of 1984 and 1986 and tested for the presence of rotavirus infection. Asymptomatic excretion was found to occur in 25% of the newborn babies analysed. Gel electrophoresis of the rotavirus RNA genome revealed that a genomically stable strain of rotavirus was endemic in the ward at the time intervals examined. Hybridisation analysis of the VP4 and VP7 rotavirus genes, which encode the outer capsid neutralization proteins of the virus, was conducted. These results showed the presence of a serotype 4 rotavirus strain with an M37-like VP4 gene allele, which remained conserved in the nursery over the time period examined. Partial nucleotide sequences were obtained for a variable region of the VP7 gene and for the hyperdivergent region of the VP4 gene from 8 of these viruses and showed that remarkable conservation of these regions in the genes of the viruses occurred over time.
1984年和1986年冬季，从加兰夸医院的健康新生儿中采集粪便样本，检测是否存在轮状病毒感染。在分析的新生儿中，发现25%有无症状排泄。轮状病毒RNA基因组的凝胶电泳显示，在所检查的时间间隔内，一种基因组稳定的轮状病毒株在病房中呈地方流行。对编码病毒外 capsid 中和蛋白的VP4和VP7轮状病毒基因进行了杂交分析。这些结果表明存在一种血清型4轮状病毒株，其具有M37样VP4基因等位基因，在所检查的时间段内，该等位基因在托儿所中保持保守。从其中8种病毒中获得了VP7基因可变区和VP4基因超发散区的部分核苷酸序列，结果表明，随着时间的推移，这些病毒基因中的这些区域具有显著的保守性。
