Transmission of recombinant enterovirus A76 (EV-A76) in Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China

Emerg Microbes Infect. 2023 Dec;12(1):2149350. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2022.2149350.

Abstract

Enterovirus 76 (EV-A76) is a serotype of enterovirus A and has been rarely reported. In this paper, we present the genetic characteristics of 15 EV-A76 isolates reported to circulate in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China in 2011. Sequence analysis revealed that all Chinese EV-A76 isolates had high similarity (> 98.3%) in the VP1 region, and five Chinese EV-A76 isolates were selected for whole genome sequencing based on VP1 nucleotide divergence. Similarity plots and boot-scanning analyses revealed frequent intertypic recombination in the nonstructural region of the EV-A76 isolate, as found with the EV-A89 donor sequence (also isolated in Xinjiang). The breakpoint of recombination is around nucleotide 3960, and the recombinant fragments covered part 2C and all P3 regions. This study increases publicly available EV-A76 nucleotide sequence and further our understanding EV-A76 molecular epidemiology.

Keywords: Enterovirus A76; recombination; transmission.

Publication types

  • Letter

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Viral / genetics
  • China / epidemiology
  • Enterovirus Infections*
  • Enterovirus*
  • Genome, Viral
  • Humans
  • Nucleotides
  • Phylogeny

Substances

  • Antigens, Viral
  • Nucleotides

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Beijing [grant number L192014]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31900140]; National Science and Technology Major Project [grant number 2018ZX10101002-001-003]; National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2021YFC2302003].