Abstract
Norovirus is the primary cause of acute gastroenteritis in individuals of all ages. In Australia, a new strain of norovirus (GII.4) was identified in March 2012, and this strain has spread rapidly around the world. In August 2012, this new GII.4 strain was identified in patients in South Korea. Therefore, to examine the characteristics of the epidemic norovirus GII.4 2012 variant in South Korea, we conducted KM272334 full-length genomic analysis. The genome of the gg-12-08-04 strain consisted of 7,558 bp and contained three open reading frame (ORF) composites throughout the whole genome: ORF1 (5,100 bp), ORF2 (1,623 bp), and ORF3 (807 bp). Phylogenetic analyses showed that gg-12-08-04 belonged to the GII.4 Sydney 2012 variant, sharing 98.92% nucleotide similarity with this variant strain. According to SimPlot analysis, the gg-12-08-04 strain was a recombinant strain with breakpoint at the ORF1/2 junction between Osaka 2007 and Apeldoorn 2008 strains. This study is the first report of the complete sequence of the GII.4 Sydney 2012 strain in South Korea. Therefore, this may represent the standard sequence of the norovirus GII.4 2012 variant in South Korea and could therefore be useful for the development of norovirus vaccines.
Highlights
Norovirus (NoV) is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in individuals of all age groups worldwide [1, 2]
In the United States of America (USA), NoV has been shown to be a major cause of large-scale food poisoning [9], and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that NoV was detected in up to 96% of all viral gastroenteritis cases during the period from 1996 to 1997 [10]
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed that NoV was the cause of gastroenteritis in 1,046 patients who consumed contaminated water and food in 2013 [11]
Summary
Norovirus (NoV) is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in individuals of all age groups worldwide [1, 2]. In the United States of America (USA), NoV has been shown to be a major cause of large-scale food poisoning [9], and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that NoV was detected in up to 96% of all viral gastroenteritis cases during the period from 1996 to 1997 [10]. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed that NoV was the cause of gastroenteritis in 1,046 patients who consumed contaminated water and food in 2013 [11]. NoV variant was found in Sydney, Australia [15] This new variant strain caused major episodes of food poisoning in many countries, including Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan, Italy, and Canada [16,17,18,19,20]. Our data are expected to provide important insights into the genetic characteristics of this virus, thereby facilitating the development of an effective NoV vaccine
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