Objective: To study the nucleotide sequence of L segment of Hantavirus strain A9.
Methods: The partial L segment cDNA of A9 strain was amplified by PCR, the PCR product was sequenced.
Results: The nucleotide sequence of partial L segment of A9 strain was provided, the sequence was A, T rich, similar to other Hantaviruses, and similar to both M, S segments. Compared with nucleotide sequences from other Hantaviruses, it revealed a higher homology to HTN virus strain 76-118,83.5% at nucleotide level and 96.7% at deduced amino level. SNV, PUU and Tula viruses shared the lower homology. A9 and 76-118 were at same cluster in phylogenetic analysis, close to SEO virus but not to PUU, SNV, Tula viruses. Comparing of partial nucleotide sequence of strain A9 with 76-118, some conserved regions were found, but also some regions of A9 were more conserved to other viruses not 76-118. It suggested that when design the primers for L segments amplification, more than one type of Hantavirus sequence should he concerned. Like the homology from M and S segments of Hantaviruses, the viruses isolated from same host animal showed high homology.
Conclusions: Nucleotide sequence of L segment of Hantavirus strain A9 revealed homology between 85.2% -70.8% to different types of Hantavirus and shared a higher homology of 85.2% to strain 76-118.