Partial genome molecular characteristics of Getah virus newly isolated in China

Objective: To study the genome molecular characteristics of Getah virus (DY0824) which isolated in Shandong province, 2008 by molecular biology methods. Methods: Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to amplify the structural gene and 3'UTR fragments then the RT-PCR products were inserted into PGEM-T easy to be sequenced. Computer software was used to analyze the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence, and draw phylogenetic trees, including Clustal X1.83 and MegaAlign and Mega4. Results: The capsid protein of DY0824 consists of 804 nucleotides, encoding 268 amino acids and the full-length of E2 protein is 1266 nucleotides, encoding 422 amino acids. The nucleotide homology of the capsid protein and the E2 protein with other strains were 95.4%-99.9% and 94.8% -99.5%, and the amino acid were 97.4%-100% and 97.6%-100%. The 3'UTR of the virus include 401 nucleotides and there are three repeat sequence elements. Conclusion: Compared with the prototype virus, the Getah virus isolated in Shandong province had 7 amino acid differences in capsid protein genes and 10 amino acid differences in E protein genes. The 3'UTR region had multi-nucleotide changes.