Advances in porcine gastroenteric viruses

Abstract

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) genome evolution Since the first USA PEDV strains were sequenced in 2013, the number of PEDV full genomes in databases has exponentially grown, being duplicated in almost one year, with 332 genomes available in GenBank (February 2016). This fact has allowed the classification of PEDV viruses into several genotypes, although the correlation, if any, between genotypes and serotypes remains to be determined. In addition, PEDV is rapidly evolving, especially the sequence of the spike (S) gene, in which small insertions and deletions (S-INDEL) or large deletions, have been identified less than a year after the first isolation of PEDV in the USA. This fact makes the phylogenetic classification based on the S genes quite different to that based on full-genome sequences, being the last one the most appropriate for evolutionary and epidemiological analyses.