Genetic characteristics of VP1 encoding region of Coxsackievirus A16 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 2010

Objective To reveal the genetic characteristics of VP1 encoding region of Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,2010.Methods With specific primers,reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were performed to amplify the complete VP1 encoding sequence from CA16 isolates,which were isolates from hand,foot,and mouth disease (HFMD) patients in Ningxia in 2010.The VP1 sequences were determined,and analyzed with bioinformatic software.Results Totally,VP1 of 62 CA16 strains were determined,showing 90.1％-100％ (average,94.5％) identities of nucleotide sequences and 98.7％-100％ (average,99.6％) identities of amino acid sequences.On phylogenetic tree,all of the viruses in this study clustered together with subgenotype B1,which could be divided into clade B1a and B1b further.And viruses from each prefecture in Ningxia included both clade B1a and clade B1b.Conclusions Consistent with CA16 from other provinces,CA16 circulating in Ningxia in 2010 included both clade B1a and B1b.These viruses showed high diversity of VP1 nucleotide sequences,suggesting heterologous CA16 strains were co-circulating in Ningxia in year 2010. Key words: Coxsackievirus infections;  Hand, foot, and mouth disease;  Epidemiology, molecular