Full-length genome and molecular characterization of dengue virus serotype 2 isolated from an imported patient from...

Dengue is the most common mosquito-borne infection worldwide and a serious threat to global public health. Sporadic dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2) imported cases from Myanmar have been documented almost every year in Yunnan Province of China since 2005. However, the complete genome sequences of DENV-2 isolates imported from Myanmar are not available.

The full-length genome of the DENV-2 strain (YNPE2), isolated from an imported case from Myanmar in 2013, was identified by the next-generation sequencing. The extreme ends of the viral genome were validated by 5'/3' RACE and Sanger sequencing. Furthermore, phylogenetic, recombination and selection pressure analyses were conducted for the molecular characterization of YNPE2 strain.

Whole-genome sequencing revealed that the full-length sequence of YNPE2 strain was 10,724 bases, with an open reading frame encoding for 3391 amino acids. The YNPE2 strain had 99.0% nucleotide identity and 99.8% amino acid identity with two closely related strains, ThD2_0078_01 strain (DQ181797) and DENV-2/TH/BID-V2157/200 strain (FJ639832). The phylogenetic analysis suggested that the YNPE2 strain belonged to Asian I genotype and was likely derived from Thailand strain (DQ181797). Moreover, selection pressure analysis revealed two amino acid sites of the NS4B and NS5 proteins, with important evidence of positive selection.

This study revealed the first complete genome sequence and molecular characterization of a DENV-2 strain (YNPE2) isolated from an imported case from Myanmar, thus providing a valuable reference genome source for future surveillance, epidemiology and vaccine development of DENV-2 virus in Yunnan, China.