Molecular and biological characterization of a new isolate of guinea pig cytomegalovirus.
Development of a vaccine against congenital infection with human cytomegalovirus is complicated by the issue of re-infection, with subsequent vertical transmission, in women with pre-conception immunity to the virus. The study of experimental therapeutic prevention of re-infection would ideally be undertaken in a small animal model, such as the guinea pig cytomegalovirus (GPCMV) model, prior to human clinical trials. However, the ability to model re-infection in the GPCMV model has been limited by availability of only one strain of virus, the 22122 strain, isolated in 1957. In this report, we describe the isolation of a new GPCMV strain, the CIDMTR strain. This strain demonstrated morphological characteristics of a typical Herpesvirinae by electron microscopy. Illumina and PacBio sequencing demonstrated a genome of 232,778 nt. Novel open reading frames ORFs not found in reference strain 22122 included an additional MHC Class I homolog near the right genome terminus. The CIDMTR strain was capable of dissemination in immune compromised guinea pigs, and was found to be capable of congenital transmission in GPCMV-immune dams previously infected with salivary gland‑adapted strain 22122 virus. The availability of a new GPCMV strain should facilitate study of re-infection in this small animal model.
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. schleiss@umn.edu.
Mark R
MR
Schleiss
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. smcallis@umn.edu.
Shane
S
McAllister
Department of Veterinary Population Medicine and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA. armie001@umn.edu.
Anibal G
AG
Armién
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Nelmary
N
Hernandez-Alvarado
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Claudia
C
Fernández-Alarcón
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. zabe043@umn.edu.
Jason C
JC
Zabeli
National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR), Santa Fe, NM 87505, USA. tr@ncgr.org.
Thiruvarangan
T
Ramaraj
National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR), Santa Fe, NM 87505, USA. jac@ncgr.org.
John A
JA
Crow
Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. mmcvoy@vcu.edu.
Michael A
MA
McVoy
D000818:Animals; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011247:Pregnancy; D019211:Roseolovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D019349:Roseolovirus Infections / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure
D004279:DNA, Viral