title: Human cytomegalovirus UL144 open reading frame: sequence hypervariability in low-passage clinical isolates.
abstract: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects a number of organs and cell types in vivo, leading to the hypothesis that HCMV disease and tissue tropism may be related to specific sequence variants. A potential component of HCMV variant strains is the UL144 open reading frame (ORF), which encodes a homologue of the herpesvirus entry mediator, HveA, a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. Sequence analysis of the UL144 ORF in 45 low-passage clinical isolates demonstrated significant strain-specific variability. In individual isolates, nucleotide substitutions occur at up to 21% of the 531 positions, resulting in approximately the same percentage of substitutions in the predicted 176-amino-acid sequence. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the nucleotide and amino acid sequences diverge into three major groups. For genotypic comparison, the known hypervariable region encompassing the proteolytic cleavage site of the glycoprotein B (gB) gene was also sequenced. All of the isolates could be typed according to the four known gB groups; however, the gB and UL144 sequence groups appeared to be phylogenetically unlinked. The predicted UL144 product homology with tumor necrosis factor receptor family members, along with the unexpectedly high level of sequence variability of the UL144 ORF, suggests that the predicted product may play a role in HCMV infectivity and subsequent host disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology/Microbiology, Rush Medical College, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. nlurain@rush.edu
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Lurain
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kapell
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Short
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paintsil
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Winkfield
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Benedict
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Ware
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bremer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; C119624:UL144 ORF protein, Human herpesvirus 5; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; C040495:glycoprotein B, Simplexvirus