Emergence of norovirus GII-4/2008 variant and recombinant strains in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Recently, the emergence of a new NoV GII-4 variant strain every 2 or 3 years has been reported. One hundred seventeen NoV GII strains were detected by RT-PCR in children with AGE between August 2008 and February 2010. In phylogenetic analyses, GII-4 and GII-3 were the most frequently detected strains. The detection rate of the 2008 variant was similar to that of the 2006b variant in the winter seasons of 2009 and 2010. This study shows a changing pattern of a predominant GII-4/2006b variant to the 2008 variant, as well as a novel NoV recombinant strain, GII-6/GII-14, in Korea.

Environmental Transmission of Human Noroviruses in Shellfish Waters

“…There is contrasting evidence on the prevalences of different NoV strains in effluent (90,91,96). These differences could be attributed to differential levels of resistance to removal during the treatment process (90) or to dilution effects (95) or to different patterns of strain prevalence in the community (97,98,99). Epidemiological evidence indicates, however, that the majority of outbreaks due to person-to-person transmission are associated with the pandemic GII.4 strain (98,99,100).…”

The Importance of Intergenic Recombination in Norovirus GII.3 Evolution

“…This is low compared to the Ն96% similarity shared by GII.3 RdRps, thus a genotype for these RdRps could not be established. The GII.12 RdRp was also difficult to define, as it has previously been referred to as both GII.12 (31,52) and GII.4 (32,53). For simplicity, in accordance with the Norovirus genotyping tool, this genotype has been labeled GII.12 in this study (41).…”

“…In contrast, GII.3/GII.a recombinant strains were not as prevalent, causing isolated outbreaks and sporadic disease in Australia, Argentina, and Japan during 1998 and 2002 (55)(56)(57). The recombinant GII.3/GII.12 strain appeared to be restricted to a specific geographic region, including Japan, China, and South Korea, where it was a major cause of pediatric norovirus disease from 2003 to 2009 (24,31,53,58).…”

Histo-Blood Group Antigen-Like Substances of Human Enteric Bacteria as Specific Adsorbents for Human Noroviruses

“…NoVLP genotypes GI.7 (accession number AB758449), GII.3 (AB758450), GII.4 (AB668028), and GII.6 (AB758451) were prepared according to a published method (19). These genotypes were selected because GII.3, GII.4, and GII.6 are the most prevalent GII noroviruses (20)(21)(22), while GI.7 is also detected frequently in epidemiological studies (23). The HBGA binding profile of each genotype (Table 1) was tested as follows.…”