[Molecular characteristics of the full-length genomes of Japanese encephalitis virus strains newly isolated in 2009, China].

To conduct sequencing of full-length genomes of two Japanese encephalitis virus strains (JEV) newly isolated in 2009 in China and analyze the characteristics of complete nucleotide sequences. The complete genomic sequences were obtained by RT-PCR and sequencing directly. Bioinformatics was used to analyze the nucleic acid data, deduced amino acid sequence and phylogenetic trees. The result of sequence analysis showed that the genomes of YN0911 and YN0967 strains were both 10965nt in length, which coded 3432 amino acid polyprotein. The homology of genome ranged from 83.3% to 98.9% in nt and from 94.8% to 99.7% in aa, respectively, when compared with selected JEV strains in GenBank. There were 13 amino acid divergences which were not the key virulence sites in E protein when compared with vaccine strain SA14-14-2. There were 11nt deletions in the 3' UTR region. Phylogenetic analyses based on C/ PrM, E gene and full-length genome all showed that YN0911 and YN0967 strains belonged to genotype I. The result also showed that two new JEVs had close phylogenetic relationship with the strains from Viet Nam, Sichuan Province, Guizhou Province, Guangxi Province, China. This study indicated that JEV strains newly isolated in 2009 in China were the members of JEV genotype I. The key virulence sites in E protein did not change.