Use of inverse polymerase chain reaction to characterize a novel human herpesvirus 7 isolate.
Human herpesvirus-7 (HHV-7) is a T-lymphotropic virus detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and in saliva, but no reliable link between this agent and a disease has been demonstrated so far. Starting from a 186 bp-fragment described previously, we used an inverse polymerase chain reaction to clone and sequence the adjacent sequences of this known region. A 1062 bp-fragment containing two ORFs was characterized and its sequence was compared with those of two other beta-herpesviruses, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6). With respect to the first ORF, amino-acid identity was estimated to be 22% between HHV-7 and HCMV, and 47% between HHV-7 and HHV-6. In contrast, only a weak homology between HHV-7 and the two other beta-herpesviruses was demonstrated for the second ORF. The newly characterized 1062 bp-fragment was used to define a novel HHV-7-specific PCR assay. Preliminary data indicate that this region is highly conserved among HHV-7 isolates.
Poirel
L
L
Laboratoire de Virologie, CNRS EP 57, CERVI, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtriére, Paris, France.
Aubin
J T
JT
Gautheret
A
A
Malet
I
I
Huraux
J M
JM
Agut
H
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D016199:Herpesvirus 7, Human / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D004279:DNA, Viral