Frontiers in Microbiology (Jan 2021)

Classification of the Zoonotic Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 Into Distinct Subgenotypes

  • Florence Nicot,
  • Chloé Dimeglio,
  • Chloé Dimeglio,
  • Marion Migueres,
  • Marion Migueres,
  • Nicolas Jeanne,
  • Justine Latour,
  • Florence Abravanel,
  • Florence Abravanel,
  • Florence Abravanel,
  • Noémie Ranger,
  • Agnès Harter,
  • Martine Dubois,
  • Sonia Lameiras,
  • Sylvain Baulande,
  • Sabine Chapuy-Regaud,
  • Sabine Chapuy-Regaud,
  • Sabine Chapuy-Regaud,
  • Nassim Kamar,
  • Nassim Kamar,
  • Nassim Kamar,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Sébastien Lhomme,
  • Jacques Izopet,
  • Jacques Izopet,
  • Jacques Izopet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.634430
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is the most common genotype linked to HEV infections in Europe and America. Three major clades (HEV-3.1, HEV-3.2, and HEV-3.3) have been identified but the overlaps between intra-subtype and inter-subtype p-distances make subtype classification inconsistent. Reference sequences have been proposed to facilitate communication between researchers and new putative subtypes have been identified recently. We have used the full or near full-length HEV-3 genome sequences available in the Genbank database (April 2020; n = 503) and distance analyses of clades HEV-3.1 and HEV-3.2 to determine a p-distance cut-off (0.093 nt substitutions/site) in order to define subtypes. This could help to harmonize HEV-3 genotyping, facilitate molecular epidemiology studies and investigations of the biological and clinical differences between HEV-3 subtypes.

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