COMPARATIVE SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS STRAINS

Three regions of DNA from five low-passage clinical isolates of human cytomegalovirus were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The DNA sequences as well as the predicted amino acid sequences were compared with those of the laboratory strains AD169 and Towne. The genomic regions consisted of (i) three regions from the major glycoprotein (gp58/116, unique long [U(L)]55), (ii) three regions from the integral membrane protein (IMP, U(L)100), and (iii) a region from the major immediate-early 1 and 2 (IE-1/2) enhancer/promoter. Homologies ranged from 75.8 to 100.0% on the nucleotide level and from 47 to 100% on the amino acid level. The following two patterns were observed. (i) There are regions with a high degree of conservation with few scattered point mutations (mainly in the IE-1/2 enhancer/promoter and in the IMP gene). (ii) There are clusters of highly variable regions (parts of the gp58/116 gene and of the IMP gene). Within the areas of high variability, the strains could be classified into a limited number of subtypes.