National Institute of Virology, 130/1, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune-411 021, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XVIII National Conference of Indian Virological Society at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, December 11–13, 2008.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major causative agent of chronic hepatitis is distributed worldwide. HCV has been classified into 6 major genotypes. Genotype 3 is most predominant in India. Three novel subtypes 3g, 3j, and 3i have been identified from India. Characterization of genotype 3 sequences is of significance as this genotype is especially sensitive to interferon therapy and is rapidly gaining epidemiological importance. HCV RNA positive serum sample earlier classified as 3i was used for generating the full genome sequence. The genome was amplified in 11 overlapping PCR fragments using suitable sense and antisense primers. Analysis of the sequence was done using MEGA 3.1 software. The HCV-Ind-3i (Accession Number: FJ407092) genome was found to cluster with genotype 3 sequences. Amongst genotype 3 sequences subtype 3i was closer to subtypes 3b and 3a. Nucleotide similarities were highest in core region and minimum in E2 region. A total of 192 amino acid changes were specific to subtype 3i. Nucleotide composition of HCV-Ind-3i genome was A-21%, T-22.5%, G-27.8% and C-28.6%. No evidence of recombination was observed. Full genome sequence-based phylogenetic analysis confirms the existence of subtype 3i, identified earlier using core-based analysis. Similar data for other subtypes needs to be generated.
