Genomic 3′ terminal sequence comparison of three isolates of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus

Abstract

Comparison of sequence data is necessary in older to investigate virus origins, identify features common to virulent strains, and characterize genomic organization within virus families. A virulent caliciviral disease of rabbits recently emerged in China. We have sequenced 1100 bases from the 3' ends of two independent European isolates of this virus, and compared these with previously determined calicivirus sequences. Rabbit caliciviruses were closely related, despite the different countries in which isolation was made. This supports the rapid spread of a new virus across Europe. The capsid protein sequences of these rabbit viruses differ markedly from those determined for feline calicivirus, but a hypothetical 3' open reading frame is relatively well conserved between the caliciviruses of these two different hosts and argues for a functional role.

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) and rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV): a review

“…The first complete genome sequence of RHDV was obtained in 1991 by Meyers et al [26]. The characterisation of the genetic diversity was initiated by sequencing and comparing partial sequences of a few European isolates [139-141]. The isolates were found to be highly similar and closely related.…”

“…Overall, with the exception of the RHDVa isolates, the evolution of RHDV is associated with a high degree of genetic homogeneity, with maximum nucleotide and amino acid differences of 10% and 6%, respectively [14,90,91,137,139-141,145,147,150,156-163], and mostly located in the regions C and E. These differences are much lower than those observed for other caliciviruses (e.g. for Norovirus , amino acid differences can reach a maximum of 61.4% while for Sapovirus they can reach 55%) [164,165].…”

“…for Norovirus , amino acid differences can reach a maximum of 61.4% while for Sapovirus they can reach 55%) [164,165]. This high homology may have resulted from the rapid spread of a new virus, expanding into a susceptible host population [139], but also from the fact that RHDV is a newly emerging pathogen whose evolution started recently, at variance from that of Norovirus and Sapovirus .…”

Detection of the ORF3 polypeptide of feline calicivirus in infected cells and evidence for its expression from a single, functionally bicistronic, subgenomic mRNA

“…The predicted protein shows 90-94 % identity at the amino acid sequence level amongst five different FCV strains (Seal et al, 1993). A homologous small ORF is also present at the 3" end of NV, RHDV, VESV and SMSV (Carter, 1990;Meyers et al, t991;Neill, 1992;Jiang et al, 1993) and is conserved at the amino acid sequence level within members (Milton et al, 1992;Neill, 1992;Seal et al, 1993). The conservation of this hypothetical polypeptide argues that it plays a functional role.…”

Self-assembly, antigenicity, and immunogenicity of the rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (Czechoslovakian strain V-351) capsid protein expressed in baculovirus

“…Other members of the CaIiciviridae include vesicular exanthema virus of pigs, San Miguel sea lion virus, feline calicivirus, human hepatitis E virus and Norwolk virus [34,36,37]. RHDV probably has emerged from a pre-existing non pathogenic rabbit calicivirus to a highly pathogenic strain causing an acute disease in rabbits [23]. The disease was first reported in China in 1984 [t8], and in Korea in 1985, and then spread to Europe between 1987 and 1989 [24].…”