Recombinant Noroviruses Circulating in Spain from 2016 to 2020 and Proposal of Two Novel Genotypes within Genogroup I
Noemi Navarro‐Lleó, Cristina Santiso-Bellón, Susana Vila-Vicent, Noelia Carmona‐Vicente, Roberto Gozalbo‐Rovira, Roberto Cárcamo‐Calvo, Jesús Rodríguez‐Díaz, Javier Buesa
Abstract
Human noroviruses are the most common cause of viral diarrhea. There are no approved vaccines to prevent their infections yet, which would be very useful to protect infants, small children, and the elderly in residential institutions. These viruses are extremely contagious and can be transmitted by contaminated food and water as well as directly from person to person. Molecular surveillance and epidemiology of norovirus infections allow the identification of the most common viral strains in different geographical areas over time. Noroviruses show wide genetic variability due to a high rate of mutations but also due to genomic recombinations, as we demonstrate in this study. We have detected 25 different viral capsid-polymerase gene associations among 224 norovirus strains characterized in Spain between January 2016 and April 2020, including two tentative new capsid genotypes in genogroup I.