{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,9]],"date-time":"2026-10-09T10:17:55Z","timestamp":1791541075655,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]],"date-time":"2025-03-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1743120000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["82402622"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82402622"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2021YFC2301000"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFC2301000"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["82402622"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82402622"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2021YFC2301000"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFC2301000"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the most common pathogens causing acute hepatitis. Rat HEV, a member of the genus Rocahepevirus, infects mainly rat but can also cause human zoonotic infection. A survey of the virome of rats via next-generation sequencing (NGS) was performed in Yunnan Province and Inner Mongolia in China. Further screening of rat HEV was conducted by nested PCR. The complete genome of six representative strains were obtained by NGS and RT-PCR. The virome analysis revealed that multiple reads were annotated as Hepeviridae. The screening results showed that HEV was detected in 9.6% (34 of 355) of the rat samples and phylogenetically classified into three lineages. The sequences from Yunnan clustered with Rocahepevirus ratti, named the YnRHEV group, and those from Inner Mongolia were separated into two lineages, named the NmRHEV-1 and NmRHEV-2 groups. Complete sequence analysis showed that YnRHEV had very high sequence identity to a human HEV strain identified in immunosuppressed patients (88.7% to 94.3%), a reminder of the risk of cross-species transmission of rodent HEV. Notably, NmRHEV-1 and the most closely related rat HEV, RtCb-HEV\/HeB2014, were divergent from other HEV. The phylogenetic analyses and lower sequence identities of the complete genome suggested the NmRHEV-1 to be a novel putative genus of the subfamily Orthohepevirinae. NmRHEV-2 shared the highest sequence identities (70.6% to 72.0%) with the species Rocahepevirus eothenomi, which may represent a putative novel genotype. This study revealed high genetic diversity of Hepeviridae in rats in China and a potentially zoonotic Rocahepevirus ratti strain.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v17040490","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]],"date-time":"2025-03-28T06:06:35Z","timestamp":1743141995000},"page":"490","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Diversity of Hepatitis E Viruses in Rats in Yunnan Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Li-Li","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"NHC Key Laboratory for Medical Virology and Viral Diseases, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiao-Hua","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"GANSU Provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-6495-6021","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiao-Wei","family":"Nan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Academy of Preventive Medicine), Hohhot 010080, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4903-7168","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jing-Lin","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Yunnan Tropical and Subtropical Animal Viral Disease Laboratory, Yunnan Animal Science and Veterinary Institute, Kunming 650224, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"School of Public Health, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiao-Man","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"NHC Key Laboratory for Medical Virology and Viral Diseases, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jin-Song","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"NHC Key Laboratory for Medical Virology and Viral Diseases, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gui-Sen","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhao-Jun","family":"Duan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"NHC Key Laboratory for Medical Virology and Viral Diseases, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1007\/s12250-018-0011-8","article-title":"Chevrier\u2019s Field Mouse (Apodemus chevrieri) and P\u00e8re David\u2019s Vole (Eothenomys melanogaster) in China Carry Orthohepeviruses that form Two Putative Novel Genotypes Within the Species Orthohepevirus C","volume":"33","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Virol. 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