ANALYSIS OF HEPATITIS E VIRUS-LIKE SEQUENCE IN CHIMPANZEE

摘要

Dear Editor: Hepatitis E virus (HEV), a member of the genus Hepevirus , is a non-enveloped virus with a positive stranded RNA genome that is approximately 7.2 kb in length (1). It has been hypothesized that zoonosis is involved in the transmission of HEV (2 ,3 ). Hepatitis E virus antibodies or genes have been reported to exist in many species of mammals, including monkeys (4 ,5 ). Recently, divergent HEV strains has been discovered in different animals, including rats (6), mouses (7), and rabbits (8), which suggests that more animal species could be the reservoir of HEV. In the present study, we analyzed a HEV-like sequence, which was found by chance during the discovery of RNA virus in fecal samples of Chimpanzee from a zoo in China. Briefly, we extracted total RNA from the fecal suspension and performed reverse transcription using a primer containing a fixed sequence followed by a randomized octomer at the 3? end. A single round of DNA synthesis was then performed using Klenow fragment polymerase. Twenty cycles of PCR amplification of nucleic acids was then performed using primers consisting of fixed portions of the random primers. Then the PCR products were purified, cloned into T-vector and sequenced. The resulting sequences were searched in GenBank using BLASTx.