title: Development of a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction procedure for the detection of marine caliciviruses with potential application for nucleotide sequencing.
abstract: A reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure is described for the detection of marine caliciviruses including vesicular exanthema of swine virus (VESV), San Miguel sea lion virus (SMSV), bovine Tillamook virus (BCV Bos-1) and caliciviruses (CV) isolated from dolphin (Cetacean CV), gorilla (Primate CV) and rattlesnake (Reptile CV) using primers (1F and 1R) designed from the capsid-coding region of the viral genome. These primers were compared with those described by Neill, J.D. and Seal, B.S., 1995: Development of PCR primers for specific amplification of two distinct regions of the genomes of San Miguel sea lion and vesicular exanthema of swine viruses, Mol. Cell. Probes 9, 33-38 (Hel1/Hel2), which had been designed from the 2C-like region of the calicivirus genome. Both sets proved to be extremely useful diagnostic tools for all of the known marine calicivirus serotypes with the exception of three: SMSV-8 and -12 and mink CV suggesting that these three caliciviruses may belong to a different group. Neither of the two primer sets reacted with strains of the vesicular disease viruses of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), swine vesicular disease (SVD) or vesicular stomatitis (VS) nor with two feline caliciviruses (FCV). The 1F/1R primer set has the advantage over the Hel1/Hel2 set in that it generates a larger PCR product for nucleotide sequence investigations and so provides greater opportunity for identifying molecular differences between the viruses.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Animal Health, Pirbright Laboratory, Woking, Surrey, UK. scott.reid@bbsrc.ac.uk
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Ansell
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Ferris
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Hutchings
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Knowles
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002139:Caliciviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002415:Cats; D002417:Cattle; D017839:Crotalus / Q000821:virology; D004289:Dolphins / Q000821:virology; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000821:virology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017928:Vesicular exanthema of swine virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification