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Updated: May 17, 2026

A Cell Culture Model for Producing High Titer Hepatitis E Virus Stocks
Published on: June 26, 2020
Determination of the full-genome sequence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) SAAS-FX17 and use as a reference to identify
Yumin Zhu1, Xiaoming Yu, Fenfen Huang
1Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 201106, China.
Background:
Four major genotypes of hepatitis E virus (HEV), the causative agent of hepatitis E, have so far been recognized. While genotypes 3 and 4 are both zoonotic, the disease symptoms caused by the latter tend to be more severe. To examine if specific nucleotide/amino acid variations between genotypes 3 and 4 play a role in determining the severity of hepatitis E disease, the complete genome of one swine HEV genotype 4 isolate, SAAS-FX17, was determined and compared with other genotype 4 and genotype 3 genomes to identify putative HEV genotype 4 virulence determinants.
Results:
A total of 42 conformable nt/aa variations between genotype 3 and 4 HEVs were detected, of which 19 were proposed to be potential disease severity determinants for genotype 4 strains.
Conclusions:
One potential determinant was located in each of the 5'-UTR and 3'-UTR, 3 and 12 within ORF1 and ORF2 respectively, and 2 in the junction region.
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