%0 Journal Article %A Ni, Haolin %A Chang, Gwong-Jen J. %A Xie, Hong %A Trent, Dennis W. %A Barrett, Alan D. T. %T Molecular basis of attenuation of neurovirulence of wild-type Japanese encephalitis virus strain SA14 %D 1995 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 76 %N 2 %P 409-413 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-76-2-409 %I Microbiology Society, %X To identify the molecular determinants for attenuation of wild-type Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus strain SA14, the RNA genome of wild-type strain SA14 and its attenuated vaccine virus SA14-2-8 were reverse transcribed, amplified by PCR and sequenced. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of SA14-2-8 vaccine virus with virulent parent SA14 virus and with two other attenuated vaccine viruses derived from SA14 virus (SA14-14-2/PHK and SA14-14-2/PDK) revealed only seven amino acids in the virulent parent SA14 had been substituted in all three attenuated vaccines. Four were in the envelope (E) protein (E-138, E-176, E-315 and E-439), one in non-structural protein 2B (NS2B-63), one in NS3 (NS3-105), and one in NS4B (NS4B-106). the substitutions at E-315 and E-439 arose due to correction of the SA14/CDC sequence published previously by Nitayaphan et al. (Virology 177, 541-552, 1990). The mutations in NS2B and NS3 are in functional domains of the trypsin-like serine protease. Attenuation of SA14 virus may therefore, in part, be due to alterations in viral protease activity, which could affect replication of the virus. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-76-2-409