Proposed criteria for classification of new genotypes of mumps virus.
The nucleotide sequences of a 300 bp segment carrying the small hydrophobic (SH) protein gene of a large number of virus strains, belonging to 10 different mumps virus genotypes denoted A-J, were compared. When virus strains belonging to the same genotype were compared intra-genotypically, a variation in the range 2-4% was recorded. The level of inter-genotypical variation was higher (8-18%). A consistent finding was the more pronounced variation found when the A genotype was compared to the B-J genotypes than when the B-J genotypes were compared among themselves. A similar relatively more pronounced genetic variation between the A and B-D genotypes has also been found previously with the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase and fusion protein genes. It is concluded that the establishment of a new genotype should be founded on a nucleotide variation of the SH gene of > or = 6% in relation to previously described genotypes.
Johansson
Bo
B
Division of Clinical Virology, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. bo.Johansson@viruslab.hs.sll.se
Tecle
Tesfaldet
T
Orvell
Claes
C
D002965:Classification / Q000379:methods; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009109:Mumps virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D014764:Viral Proteins; C067386:small hydrophobic protein, Mumps virus