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J Virol. 1978 January; 25(1): 361-373
Copyright © 1978 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Herpesvirus ateles DNA and Its Homology with Herpesvirus saimiri Nucleic Acid

² Institut für Klinische Virologie der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 8520 Erlangen, Germany
¹ New England Regional Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Southboro, Massachusetts 01772
³ Departments of Pharmacology and Microbiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605
⁴ Department of Microbiology, Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612
⁵ EMBO Research Institute, 6900 Heidelberg, Germany

ABSTRACT

Analysis of the structural organization of Herpesvirus ateles DNA shows that two types of viral DNA molecules are encapsidated in virions: (i) M-genomes, which contain 74% light sequences (L-DNA, 38% guanine plus cytosine) and 26% highly repetitive heavy sequences (H-DNA, 75% guanine plus cytosine), and (ii) defective H-genomes, which consist exclusively of repetitive H-DNA. The structure of M-genomes from H. ateles consists of an L-DNA region of about 70 x 10⁶ daltons inserted between H-DNA termini of variable length. M-genomes with a shorter H-DNA region at one end of the molecule have a long stretch of H-DNA at the other end, resulting in a total molecular weight of 89.8 ± 8.5 x 10⁶. Thus it resembles the structure of M-genomes of H. saimiri. H-DNA of the two independent H. ateles isolates, strains 810 and 73, reveals different patterns after cleavage with restriction endonuclease Sma I. H-DNA of H. ateles 810 appears to consist of identical tandem repeat units with a molecular weight of 1,035,000; the H-DNA repeat unit of strain 73 is shorter (930,000 molecular weight). Corresponding DNA sequences of the two H. ateles strains (810 and 73) are completely homologous in cross-hybridizations. However, a discrete nucleotide sequence divergence between these virus strains is detected by measuring melting temperatures (T_m) of DNA hybrid molecules. Some homology exists between H. ateles and H. saimiri DNA. Hybridization of L-DNA from H. ateles with L-DNA from H. saimiri shows about a 35% homology between the respective L-DNA sequences; the resulting heteroduplex molecules show a decrease of T_m by 13.5°C, corresponding to about a 9% mismatching in cross-hybridizing parts of L-regions. Very little homology is found between H-DNA of H. ateles and H. saimiri.

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