Fig 1.

Sequence numbers for different P genotypes and the distribution of pairwise sequence identity of rotavirus VP8* proteins. (A) Sequence numbers for each of the genotypes. A total of 2,107 available VP8* sequences in GenBank were grouped into 35 genotypes of group A RVs and group B, C, and D RVs. The unique sequences were also included in this figure after excluding identical sequences concerning the region from aa 46 to 231. Identical sequences in the original VP8* sequence pool were excluded using BioEdit software (version 7.0.9.0). (B) The remaining 1,319 unique group A RV sequences were analyzed for pairwise sequence identities within or between genotypes. The graph was constructed by plotting all the calculated pairwise identities, with the percent identities in the abscissa (x axis) and the frequency of each calculated pairwise identities in the ordinate (y axis). To determine a cutoff value, we chose a ratio below and closest to 1 between inter- and intragenotype identities. Based on this principle, the proposed intra- and intergenotype and intra- and intergenogroup identity ranges for the potential cutoff value are shown. A cutoff value of 86% sequence identity for intergenotypes and a 50% cutoff value for intercluster (genogroup) distance were selected.