Coding potential of UL/ba2 from the initial source of rhesus cytomegalovirus Strain 68-1

• Published in: Virology (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 444; no. 1-2; pp. 208 - 212
• Main Authors: Gill, Rachel, Bowman, J, Krogmann, Tammy, Wollenberg, Kurt, Asher, David, Cohen, Jeffrey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.09.2013
• Subjects: Cytomegalovirus
• ISSN: 0042-6822
• DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2013.08.026

Rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) 68-1 is the prototypic strain of RhCMV that has been used for pathogenesis and vaccine development. We determined the complete sequence of the RhCMV 68-1 UL/ba2 region directly from the original urine from which RhCMV 68-1 was isolated in 1968, and compared it to other RhCMVs. The laboratory passaged RhCMV 68-1 has inversions, deletions, and stop codons in UL/ba2 that are absent in the original isolate and other low passage RhCMV isolates. Fourteen of the 17 open reading frames (ORFs) in 68-1 UL/ba2 in the original isolate share >95% amino acid identity with low passage RhCMV. The original isolate retains 6 ORFs that encode I--chemokine-like proteins, including RhUL146 and RhUL146b that share only 92% and 81% amino acid identity, respectively, with a contemporary low passage RhCMV isolate. Identification of the original RhCMV 68-1 UL/ba2 sequence is important for using RhCMV 68-1 in pathogenesis and vaccine studies.