甲型肝炎病毒(HAV),肝病毒属(PicornaviridaeHepV)的成员,仍然是一种重要的病毒病原体,经常在全球范围内引起经肠传播的肝炎。在这项研究中,我们对云南省野生小型陆生哺乳动物携带的HepV进行了流行病学调查,中国。利用HepV特异性广谱RT-PCR,下一代测序(NGS),和QNome纳米孔测序(QNS)技术,我们鉴定并表征了两种暂时命名为EpMa-HAV和EpLe-HAV的新型HepV,发现于长尾山sh(Episoriculusmacrurus)和长尾棕齿sh(Episoriculusleucops)中,分别。我们对EpMa-HAV和EpLe-HAV的序列和系统发育分析表明它们属于I型肝病毒(HepV-I)进化枝II,也被称为中国泼妇HepV进化枝。值得注意的是,新型HepV的密码子使用偏倚模式与先前鉴定的中国HepV一致。此外,我们的结构分析表明,与其他哺乳动物HepVs的RNA二级结构不同,并且在关键蛋白位点表现出差异.总的来说,在the中发现了两个新的HepV,扩大了HepV的宿主范围,并强调了HepV属中人类HAV的遗传多样性动物同源物的存在。
Hepatitis A virus (HAV), a member of the genus Hepatovirus (Picornaviridae HepV), remains a significant viral pathogen, frequently causing enterically transmitted hepatitis worldwide. In this study, we conducted an epidemiological survey of HepVs carried by small terrestrial mammals in the wild in Yunnan Province,
China. Utilizing HepV-specific broad-spectrum RT-PCR, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and QNome nanopore sequencing (QNS) techniques, we identified and characterized two novel HepVs provisionally named EpMa-HAV and EpLe-HAV, discovered in the long-tailed mountain shrew (Episoriculus macrurus) and long-tailed brown-toothed shrew (Episoriculus leucops), respectively. Our sequence and phylogenetic analyses of EpMa-HAV and EpLe-HAV indicated that they belong to the species Hepatovirus I (HepV-I) clade II, also known as the Chinese shrew HepV clade. Notably, the codon usage bias pattern of novel shrew HepVs is consistent with that of previously identified Chinese shrew HepV. Furthermore, our structural analysis demonstrated that shrew HepVs differ from other mammalian HepVs in RNA secondary structure and exhibit variances in key protein sites. Overall, the discovery of two novel HepVs in shrews expands the host range of HepV and underscores the existence of genetically diverse animal homologs of human HAV within the genus HepV.