Genetic diversity of avian infectious bronchitis viruses in Japan based on analysis of s2 glycoprotein gene.

To understand the genetic diversity of the S2 gene of infectious bronchitis viruses (IBV) isolated in Japan, we determined the nucleotide sequences of these IBVs using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction method coupled with direct sequencing. IBV isolated in Japan were classified into six different groups by phylogenetic analysis based on the S2 gene. However, the classification based on the S2 gene of IBV isolated in Japan was different for some of the strains from those obtained with our previous analysis of the S1 gene. This suggested that genetic recombination between the virus strains classified into different genetic groups had occurred in poultry, and that recombinant viruses might be epidemic in Japan.