Genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of three avian influenza H9N2 subtypes in Guangxi

Three isolates of H9N2 Avian Influenza viruses (AIV) were isolated from chickens in Guangxi province. Eight pairs of specific primers were designed and synthesized according to the sequences of H9N2 at GenBank. phylogenetic analysis showed a high degree of homology between the Guangxi isolates and isolates from Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, suggesting that the Guangxi isolates originated from the same source. However, the eight genes of the three isolates from Guangxi were not in the same sublineages in their respective phylogenetic trees, which suggests that they were products of natural reassortment between H9N2 avian influenza viruses from different sublineages. The 9 nucleotides ACAGAGATA which encode amino acids T, G, I were absent between nucleotide 205 and 214 in the open reading frame of the NA gene in the Guangxi isolates. AIV strains that infect human have, in their HA proteins, leucine at position 226. The analysis of deduced amino acid sequence of HA proteins showed that position 226 of these isolates contained glycine instead of leucine, suggesting that these three isolates differ from H9N2 AIV strains isolated from human infections.