Identification of Several Different Lineages of Measles Virus

• Published in: Journal of general virology Vol. 72; no. 1; pp. 83 - 88
• Main Authors: Taylor, M. J, Godfrey, E, Baczko, K, ter Meulen, V, Wild, T. F, Rima, B. K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reading Soc General Microbiol 01.01.1991; Society for General Microbiology
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Amino Acid Sequence; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Capsid - genetics; Cloning, Molecular - methods; DNA, Viral - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Measles virus - classification; Measles virus - genetics; Measles virus - isolation & purification; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; mumps virus; Newcastle disease virus; Oligonucleotide Probes; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Replicative cycle, interference, host-virus relations, pathogenicity, miscellaneous strains; RNA, Messenger - genetics; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Viral Core Proteins - genetics; Virology; Virus; Proteins; Gene; Nucleotide sequence; Nucleocapside; Variable region; Morbillivirus; Aminoacid sequence; Paramyxoviridae; Strain; Measles virus
• ISSN: 0022-1317; 1465-2099
• DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-72-1-83

1 Division of Genetic Engineering, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, U.K. 2 Institut für Virologie und Immunbiologie, University of Würzburg, Versbacherstrasse 7, D-8700 Würzburg, Germany and 3 CNRS, Faculté de Médecine Alexis Carrel, Rue Guillaume Paradin, 69008 Lyon, France The sequences of a region of the nucleocapsid protein gene, between nucleotides 1231 and 1686, encoding the C-terminal 151 amino acid residues of the nucleocapsid protein have been determined for 16 strains of measles virus. Analysis of this region showed that it is highly divergent (up to 7.2% divergence in the nucleotide sequence and 10.6% divergence in the amino acid sequence between most distant strains) and that several lineages of measles virus can be found to co-circulate at a given time. Some of the lineages show geographical restriction. The results for measles virus are similar to those reported for other human paramyxoviruses such as mumps virus, parainfluenza type 3 virus and the avian Newcastle disease virus. Received 26 July 1990; accepted 12 October 1990.