Comparative nucleotide sequencing of the VP1 capsid gene of recent isolates of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype O from Egypt

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 165; no. 9; pp. 2021 - 2028
• Main Authors: Abu-Elnaga, Hany I., Rizk, Sonia A., Daoud, Hind M., Mohamed, Assem A., Mossad, Wael, Gamil, Mohamed A., Soudy, Ahmed F., EL-Shehawy, Laila I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Capsid protein; Foot & mouth disease; Infectious Diseases; Medical Microbiology; Original Article; Phylogeny; Strains (organisms); Structural proteins; Vaccines; Virology; Viruses; VP1 protein; VP3 protein; Egypt
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-020-04708-1

Since 2006, Egypt has been affected by eleven various foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) lineages. Accordingly, the nucleotide sequences of the 1D gene and the genes encoding the external capsid protein of some isolates of serotype O (the most predominant epidemic serotype in the country) collected from 2004 to 2017 were determined. All of these viruses (including the vaccine strain) belonged to serotype O, topotype ME-SA, and lineage Sharquia-72, and their sequences were of 98.6–98.9% identical to that of strain O1/Sharquia/EGY/72 (DQ164871), and differed from cultured and clinical (D197E) virus strains. The characteristic sites on the surface of the structural proteins of the Egyptian serotype O, topotype ME-SA viruses were located at residues 138 and 198 of VP1, residue 132 of VP2, and residues 56 and 104 of VP3. Furthermore, a phylogenetic tree revealed that Sharquia-72 was the only lineage present in Egypt for many decades prior to 2007. Unfortunately, however, during the last decade, five lineages of two separate topotypes of FMDV serotype O were detected in Egypt. Lineages Sharquia-72 and PanAsia-2 belong to topotype ME-SA and show ~ 14.5 to 17.5% intra-lineage divergence. In addition, lineages Qal-13, Ism-16, and Alx-17 cluster within topotype EA-3 and show ~ 4.5 to 15% intra-lineage diversity. The predecessors of the Egyptian EA-3 viruses are likely to have been from Sudan. Finally, at least a penta- or hexavalent vaccine comprising strains representing the endemic FMDV topotypes should be implemented on a wide scale in Egypt, which could combat the incursion of new lineages.