• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2009

Norovirus (NV) with a variety of genotypes, a member of the family Caliciviridae, causes acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis in humans. We determined the nucleotide sequence of three open reading frames (ORFs) of a NV Korean strain and characterized the genetic relationship with others. The Korean strain designated Hu/NLV/Gunpo/2006/KO was isolated from the stool specimen of a 2-year-old female suffering from gastroenteritis. By performing reverse transcription and PCR amplification, three overlapping cDNAs were synthesized and used for direct sequencing. We found that like other NVs, this strain contains three ORFs: ORF1, 5,100 bp; ORF2, 1,647 bp; ORF3, 765 bp. Of 35 NVs, ORF1 had a level of genetic diversity lower than ORF2 and ORF3, of which the C-termini of the ORF2 and ORF3 showed a relatively high degree of genetic diversity. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the Korean strain belonged to genogroup II, with Saitama U1, Gifu'96, Mc37, and Vietnam 026 being formed a single genetic cluster. The nucleotide sequence information of three ORFs of a NV Korean isolate will be useful not only for the development of a diagnostic tool and understanding of genetic relationship, but also provide important basic information for the functional analysis of their gene products.