Group A rotaviruses (RV-A) are the leading cause of viral gastroenteritis in children worldwide and genotype G9P[8] is one of the five most common genotypes detected in humans. In order to gain insight into the degree of genetic variability of G9P [8]
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BackgroundChildhood mortality has been declining worldwide as a result of socioeconomic development and implementation of prevention and survival interventions (Claeson et al., 2000). Group A rotaviruses (RV-A) are the main etiologic agent of acute gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide (Estes and Kapikian, 2007) and an estimated 453,000 children aged <5 years die from rotavirus diarrhea each year, with >85% of these deaths occurring in low-income countries of Africa and Asia (Parashar et al., 2009;Tate et al., 2011). Rotaviruses belong to the family Reoviridae, and the rotavirus genome consists of 11 double-stranded RNA gene segments that encode six structural (VP) and six non-structural proteins (NSP). Based on the two genes that encode the outer capsid proteins, VP4 (P-type) and VP7 (G-type), a widely used binary classification system was established for RV-A (Estes and Kapikian, 2007). This system has been recently standardized and extended to all 11 genes (Matthijnssens et al., 2008b). To date, at least 27 G, 35 P, 16 I, 9 R, 9 C, 8 M, 16 A, 9 N, 12 T, 14 E and 11 H genotypes have been identified based on the eleven rotavirus A genes (Esona et al., 2010b;Matthijnssens et al., 2011). In humans, at least five RV-A G types (G1-G4 and G9), and two common P types (P[8] and P[4]) circulate worldwide (Banyai et al., 2012;Gentsch et al., 2005;Santos and Hoshino, 2005). G9 strains emerged in 1990s, and there has been a global description of the appearance and dominance of this genotype (Gentsch et al., 2005;Laird et al., 2003;Matthijnssens et al., 2009;Santos and Hoshino, 2005). Genotype G9 strains with a Wa-like or a DS-1-like genomic configuration or a mixture thereof have been detected sporadically in localized outbreaks (Page et al., 2010). In Cameroon, the first molecular identification of genotype G9 in human samples was reported in a study conducted by colleagues in 2003 (Steele andIvanoff, 2003). At least seven major phylogenetic lineages and eleven minor lineages within G9 VP7 genes have been described (Phan et al., 2007;Wu et al., 2011). A molecular evolutionary analysis study utilizing Bayesian inference supported the idea that one single sub-lineage introduced in the 1980s was responsible for all the worldwide spread of G9 in the 1990s .In order to gain insight into the degree of genetic variability of G9P [8]
Viral RNA extraction, amplification, and sequencingViral RNA from each of the 15 specimens was extracted from a 10% stool suspension made from 0.1 g or 100 μl stool in 2 ml of a 1:1 Vertrel/Water solution using either a commercial RNA extraction kit (NucliSens automated extractor, BIOMERIEUX, Durham, NC) according to the protocol specified by the manufacturer or a silica binding method described pr...