Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Agriculture - Department of Agricultural Biochemistry

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is an important causative agent of acute hepatitis in humans and still poses a considerable problem worldwide. It is primarily transmitted through fecal- oral route by consumption of contaminated food or water. Over one year of survey, HAV was recovered from wastewater samples that were collected from three wastewater treatment plants in greater Cairo (Zeinin, El-Berka and Balaks). HAV was detected in 27 out of 68 samples (39.7%) using RT-PCR represent both influent and effluent. Eleven positive samples were subjected for sequencing targeting VP1-2A junction region. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all samples belong to subgenotype IB. The complete nucleotide sequence of one isolate (HAV/Egy/BI-11/2015) showed that the similarity over the amino acid level wasn{u2019}t reflected at the nucleotide level. However, the deuced amino acids of the complete nucleotide sequence showed a distinct substitution at 2B, 2C, and 3A regions. The recombination analysis revealed a recombination event (nucleotide 3757- 3868) involving a portion of 2B nonstructural protein coding region using specific software assuming X75215(GBM), subgenotype IA, as an actual recombinant. Despite the role of recombination in Picornavirues evolution, its involvement role in HAV evolution was reported in few reports and may be due to the limited number of complete HAV sequences. These data constitute an update for the pattern of HAV circulating in Egypt and a first available complete nucleotide sequence data for an Egyptian isolate

Issued also as CD