ABSTRACT
Objective@#To study the molecular epidemiology and genetic variation of coxsackievirus B5 (CV-B5) in certain areas in China.@*Methods@#MEGA 6.0 software was used to analyze the complete VP1 region of CV-B5 isolated strains from certain areas of China by retrieving the GenBank nucleotide database. Besides, the phylogenetic tree was constructed, the homology of nucleotide and amino acids were calculated and the rate of evolution was estimated.@*Results@#A total of 189 Chinese CV-B5 isolated strains were included in this study. Most of Chinese CV-B5 isolated strains belonged to genotype C, accounted for 90.5%. Compared with the genotype A, the homology of nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences of complete VP1 region of 189 Chinese isolated strains were 79.8%-82.8% and 92.6%-97.9%, respectively; moreover, the nucleotide and the amino acid homology of 189 Chinese CV-B5 isolated strains among themselves ranged from 80.3% to 100.0% and ranged from 91.5% to 100.0%, respectively. The estimated rate of evolution of the CV-B5 was 4×10-3 substitutions/site/year.@*Conclusions@#The majority of CV-B5 isolated strains belonged to genotype C, and subgenotype C1 and C2 were co-circulating together in certain areas of China.