Rotaviruses belonging to the AU-1 genogroup recovered from Israeli infants with diarrhea.

The genetic and antigenic diversity of group A rotaviruses recovered from Israeli infants has been expanded recently by the inclusion of three unusual human rotavirus strains. Two rotavirus strains (Ro-5829 and Ro-5960) were shown to be the first viruses outside Japan that resembled the AU-1 genogroup of feline like human rotaviruses in their overall genomic constellation and in the restriction pattern of their polymerase chain reaction amplified gene 4 following digestion with EcoRI. Another strain (Ro-5193) turned out to be an intergenogroup reassortant between viruses belonging to the AU-1 and the bovine genogroups and resembled in that respect similar viruses isolated from infants in Italy.