title: Coding potential of UL/b' from the initial source of rhesus cytomegalovirus Strain 68-1.
abstract: Rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) 68-1 is the prototypic strain of RhCMV that has been used for pathogenesis and vaccine development. We determined the complete sequence of the RhCMV 68-1 UL/b' region directly from the original urine from which RhCMV 68-1 was isolated in 1968, and compared it to other RhCMVs. The laboratory passaged RhCMV 68-1 has inversions, deletions, and stop codons in UL/b' that are absent in the original isolate and other low passage RhCMV isolates. Fourteen of the 17 open reading frames (ORFs) in 68-1 UL/b' in the original isolate share >95% amino acid identity with low passage RhCMV. The original isolate retains 6 ORFs that encode α-chemokine-like proteins, including RhUL146 and RhUL146b that share only 92% and 81% amino acid identity, respectively, with a contemporary low passage RhCMV isolate. Identification of the original RhCMV 68-1 UL/b' sequence is important for using RhCMV 68-1 in pathogenesis and vaccine studies.
authors.affiliation: Medical Virology Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jason Bowman
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krogmann
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wollenberg
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Asher
authors.forename: Jeffrey I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012692:Serial Passage; D014556:Urine / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins
keywords: Cercopithecine herpesvirus: macacine herpesvirus 3; Cynomolgus macaque cytomegalovirus; Human cytomegalovirus; Rhesus cytomegalovirus; UL/b′