Genome sequence determination and analysis of YM2019, an Equine
herpesvirus 1 Chinese strain
Abstract
Equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) is prevalent in China, and this has had
negative consequences for horse breeding. However, this is no date about
the genome sequence and genetic characterization of the strains from
China. This study aimed to determine the character of the strain that
was isolated in China and to serve as a key reference for the
development of specific assays for diagnosis and epidemiological
research. EHV-1 YM2019 was isolated from the lung tissue of an aborted
horse foetus in Xinjiang, China, and the YM2019 genome was sequenced and
analysed. The amino acid sequences of 76 EHV-1, EHV-3, EHV-4, EHV-8 and
EHV-9 proteins were compared and analysed, and the amino acid sequences
of the ORF30 and ORF42 proteins were analysed through bioinformatics.
The genome sequence (GenBank accession number: MT063054) is 150, 267 bp
in length. It shared the highest similarity with Ab4 strain (92.26%
nucleotide identity), which was isolated in the United Kingdom and
belonged to the same monophyletic group. Amino acid analysis showed that
the YM2019 strain is of the ORF30 A2254/N752 genotype. Multiple sequence
alignments of the 76 proteins indicated that the ORF42 protein had the
highest sequence identity and the ORF68 protein had the lowest identity.
This could facilitate the tracking of EHV-1 in the outbreak situation
and allow for the differentiation of the outbreak virus from the other
EHV strains. In conclusions, this study provides the genome sequence for
EHV-1 YM2019 in China and the strain shared high nucleotide homology
with Ab4 strain. In addition, Analysis suggests that EHV-8 and EHV-9 are
more closely related to EHV-1 than to EHV-3 and EHV-4, the prevalence of
EHV-8 and EHV-9 in China and the potential threat to horse breeding
deserve further investigation.