Relationship Between the Serotypes and Hemagglutinin Gene Sequences of.

Abstract

has been subtyped into three serogroups (A, B, and C) and nine serovars (A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, B-1, C-1, C-2, C-3, and C-4) according to the Page and Kume schemes. Both schemes use the hemagglutination inhibition test for serotyping. However, the relationship between the hemagglutinin gene () sequences and serotypes ofis still unclear. This problem is partly due to the lack of information on the completesequence from the formal reference strain of Page serogroup B (strain 0222 or Spross). In this study, we determined the completesequence of strain Spross. The sequence of Spross and those of othersequences retrieved from GenBank were used to conduct phylogenetic analyses to investigate the relationship between the serotypes andsequences of. Four phylogenetic clusters, designated clusters A-1, A-2, B, and C, were identified. Clustering based on completesequences correlates with serotyping based on hemagglutination inhibition tests. Serovar A-2 was found to contain a chimericgene that might have resulted from recombination between serovar A-1 and serovar C-1. In addition, phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences (approximately nucleotides 1-1200) ofwas sufficient to discriminate between serogroups A, B, and C. These findings could be valuable for developing a molecular method for serotyping of.