Complete genome sequences of all members of the species Human enterovirus A.

The species Human enterovirus A (HEV-A) in the family Picornaviridae consists of coxsackieviruses (CV) A2-A8, A10, A12, A14 and A16 and enterovirus 71. Complete genome sequences for the prototype strains of the 10 serotypes whose sequences were not represented in public databases have been determined and analysed in conjunction with previously available complete sequences in GenBank. Members of HEV-A are monophyletic relative to all other human enterovirus species in all regions of the genome except in the 5' non-translated region (NTR), where they are known to cluster with members of HEV-B. The HEV-A prototype strains were about 66 to 86 % identical to one another in deduced capsid amino acid sequence. Antigenic cross-reactivity has been reported between CVA3-Olson and CVA8-Donovan, between CVA5-Swartz and CVA12-Texas-12 and between CVA16-G-10 and EV71-BrCr. Similarity plots, individual sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses demonstrate a high degree of capsid sequence similarity within each of these three pairs of prototype strains, providing a molecular basis for the observed antigenic relationships. In several cases, phylogenies constructed from the structural (P1) and non-structural regions of the genome (P2 and P3) are incongruent. The incongruent phylogenies and the similarity plot analyses imply that recombination has played a role in the evolution of the HEV-A prototype strains. CVA6-Gdula clearly contains sequences that are also present in CVA10-Kowalik and CVA12-Texas-12, suggesting that these three strains have a shared evolutionary history despite their lack of similarity in the capsid region.