Genetic analysis of measles virus nucleocapsid gene identifies measles virus isolate of close similarity to Clade A viruses from

Previous studies on the molecular epidemiology of measles virus in Nigeria shows that genotype B3 clusters 1 and 2 are the circulating measles genotype. We report the isolation of measles virus strain of close similarity to reference genotype A measles virus strain from Ibadan, Nigeria. Molecular characterization of a measles virus isolate from a child presenting with fever and rash in a hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria, was done by measles virus isolation in Vero slam cell line, RT-PCR and direct sequencing of the COOH terminal of the nucleoprotein gene of the measles virus isolate. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequence shows that isolate MViIbadan, NIE/11.01 clustered with the reference strains of Clade A. Our current report shows evidence of another circulating MV genotype different from the previously reported genotype B3 in Nigeria. We advocate for expanded national molecular surveillance of measles virus as this will aid in achieving the country’s goal of control of the disease. Adedayo O. Faneye ( ), Babatunde O. Motayo ( ) Corresponding authors: [email protected] [email protected] : Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Author roles: Faneye AO Software, Visualization, Writing – Review & Editing; : Conceptualization, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Adeniji JA Visualization; : Software, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing Motayo BO No competing interests were disclosed. Competing interests: Faneye AO, Adeniji JA and Motayo BO. How to cite this article: Genetic analysis of measles virus nucleocapsid gene identifies measles 2018, :155 virus isolate of close similarity to Clade A viruses from Nigeria [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review] F1000Research 7 (doi: ) 10.12688/f1000research.13565.1 © 2018 Faneye AO . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: 07 Feb 2018, :155 (doi: ) First published: 7 10.12688/f1000research.13565.1 1 1,2