Comparative Analysis of Sequence Variability of Dengue Virus Serotypes Using Second Generation Wavelets

There are four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV) circulating worldwide and each serotype being different in infectivity and virulence. This study compares all four serotypes of DENV using second generation wavelet transforms. Statistical measures of energy, entropy, first order variation, mean and maximum values of different DENV serotype sequences were analyzed to compare genetic variability patterns and correlate them to the epidemic potentials. Higher epidemic potentials were exhibited by serotypes with higher average measures of energy, rms value of first order variation, maximum and mean values. High epidemic potentials were also related to lower entropy measures. The results of this study can help enhance traditional diagnostic methods to aid epidemiologic investigations especially during epidemics.