Rotavirus evolves by using multiple genetic mechanisms which are an accumulation of spontaneous point mutations and reassortment events. Other mechanisms, such as crossspecies transmission and inter-genotype recombination, may be also involved. One of the most interesting genotypes in the accumulation of these events is the G3 genotype. In this work, six new Spanish G3 sequences belonging to 0-2-year-old patients from Madrid were analysed and compared with 160 others of the same genotype obtained from humans and other host species to establish the evolutionary pathways of the G3 genotype. The following results were obtained: (i) there are four different lineages of the G3 genotype which have evolved in different species; (ii) Spanish G3 rotavirus sequences are most similar to the described sequences that belong to lineage I; (iii) several G3 genotype alleles were reassigned as other G genotypes; and (iv) inter-genotype recombination events in G3 viruses involving G1 and G2 were described. These findings strongly suggest multiple inter-species transmission events between different non-human mammalian species and humans.
INTRODUCTIONThe genus Rotavirus, in the family Reoviridae, is composed of seven different groups (groups A-G), although only groups A, B and C have been identified in humans (Hoshino & Kapikian, 1994). Group A rotavirus (RV) is responsible for most cases of gastroenteritis in humans and its genome consists of 11 double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) segments that encode six structural and six non-structural proteins. Two outer capsid proteins, VP4 and VP7, are used to define serotypes P (protease-cleaved protein VP4) and G (glycoprotein VP7) (Estes, 2001). RV serotypes are defined by virus neutralization, but genotypes are studied more often since they can be more easily characterized by sequencing or RT-PCR followed by sequencing of amplicons.Although 14 G serotypes, 16 G genotypes, 14 P serotypes and 27 P genotypes are known (Fukai et al., 2007;Gentsch et al., 1996;Liprandi et al., 2003;Martella et al., 2003;McNeal et al., 2005;Nakagomi et al., 1990), only 11 G and 15 P types have been identified in humans Martella et al., 2006a;McNeal et al., 2005;. Epidemiological studies in many parts of the world have indicated that there are five most common RV G types (G1, G2, G3, G4 and G9) and two P types (P[8] and P[4]) (Hoshino & Kapikian, 2000;Hoshino et al., 2002;Kapikian et al., 2001), and to a lesser extent P[6], P[9] and P[11] Santos et al., 2001), mainly found in countries of temperate climates. However, in countries of tropical and subtropical climates, other G and P types have been found to be most prevalent (Desselberger et al., 2001;Iturriza-Gó mara et al., 2003).There are a number of reports of RV strains isolated from humans and animals that share genetic and antigenic features of virus strains from heterologous species. In many cases, genetic analysis by hybridization has clearly demonstrated the genetic relatedness of gene segments from RV strains isolated from different species. Together with t...