AUTHOR=Nicot Florence , Dimeglio Chloé , Migueres Marion , Jeanne Nicolas , Latour Justine , Abravanel Florence , Ranger Noémie , Harter Agnès , Dubois Martine , Lameiras Sonia , Baulande Sylvain , Chapuy-Regaud Sabine , Kamar Nassim , Lhomme Sébastien , Izopet Jacques 

TITLE=Classification of the Zoonotic Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 Into Distinct Subgenotypes

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.634430

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2020.634430

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is the most common genotype linked to HEV infections in Europe and America. Three major clades (HEV-3.1, HEV-3.2, and HEV-3.3) have been identified but the overlaps between intra-subtype and inter-subtype p-distances make subtype classification inconsistent. Reference sequences have been proposed to facilitate communication between researchers and new putative subtypes have been identified recently. We have used the full or near full-length HEV-3 genome sequences available in the Genbank database (April 2020; <italic>n</italic> = 503) and distance analyses of clades HEV-3.1 and HEV-3.2 to determine a p-distance cut-off (0.093 nt substitutions/site) in order to define subtypes. This could help to harmonize HEV-3 genotyping, facilitate molecular epidemiology studies and investigations of the biological and clinical differences between HEV-3 subtypes.</p>