Species specificity and interspecies relatedness in VP4 genotypes demonstrated by VP4 sequence analysis of equine, feline, and canine rotavirus strains.

We determined the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the VP4 genes of five equine, two feline, and two canine rotavirus strains. A high degree of homology (> 97.0%) was found among the VP4 amino acid sequences of the equine strains H2, FI-14, and FI23. Equine strain L338 has a distinct VP4 amino acid sequence from those of the other equine strains (78.1% or less homology), and the L338 VP4 exhibited more than 17.0% divergence at the amino acid level from those of rotavirus strains published so far. The VP4 amino acid sequence of equine strain H1, which showed low homology with those of other equine strains, shares > 95.4% homology to those of porcine strains OSU and YM. VP4 amino acid sequences of feline strain Cat97 and canine strains CU-1 and K9 showed a high degree of homology (96.8 to 97.2%) to one another, and were found to be quite similar (96.0-97.0% homology) to that of a human HCR3 strain recently characterized. Feline strain Cat2, whose VP4 sequence is distinct from that of strain Cat97, has a VP4 similar to those of human strains K8 and AU-1 (97.8 and 97.5% homologies at amino acid level, respectively). Thus, the VP4 sequences of rotaviruses showed species specificity and interspecies relatedness.