Genetic heterogeneity of L-Zagreb mumps virus vaccine strain.
BACKGROUND
The most often used mumps vaccine strains Jeryl Lynn (JL), RIT4385, Urabe-AM9, L-Zagreb and L-3 differ in immunogenicity and reactogenicity. Previous analyses showed that JL, Urabe-AM9 and L-3 are genetically heterogeneous.


RESULTS
We identified the heterogeneity of L-Zagreb throughout the entire genome. Two major variants were defined: variant A being identical to the consensus sequence of viral seeds and vaccine(s) and variant B which differs from variant A in three nucleotide positions. The difference between viral variants in L-Zagreb strain is insufficient for distinct viral strains to be defined. We demonstrated that proportion of variants in L-Zagreb viral population depends on cell substrate used for viral replication in vitro and in vivo.


CONCLUSIONS
L-Zagreb strain should be considered as a single strain composed of at least two variant viral genomes.
Kosutic-Gulija
Tanja
T
Department for Research and Development, Institute of Immunology Inc, Rockefeller Street 10, Zagreb, Croatia. tgulija@imz.hr
Forcic
Dubravko
D
Santak
Maja
M
Ramljak
Ana
A
Mateljak-Lukacevic
Sanja
S
Mazuran
Renata
R
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D017523:Croatia; D005347:Fibroblasts; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D009108:Mumps Vaccine / Q000235:genetics*; D009109:Mumps virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013045:Species Specificity; D014709:Vero Cells; D014776:Virus Cultivation / Q000379:methods*; D014779:Virus Replication
D009108:Mumps Vaccine