Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
J. Virol., Sep 1996, 5975-5989, Vol 70, No. 9
J Nicholas
Human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) is a recently isolated betaherpesvirus that is
prevalent in the human population, with primary infection usually occurring
in early childhood. HHV-7 is related to human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) in
terms of both biological and, from limited prior DNA sequence analysis,
genetic criteria. However, extensive analysis of the HHV-7 genome has not
been reported, and the precise phylogenetic relationship of HHV-7 to the
other human betaherpesviruses HHV-6 and human cytomegalovirus has not been
determined. Here I report on the determination and analysis of the complete
DNA sequence of HHV-7 strain JI. The data establish that the close
biological relationship of HHV-6 and HHV-7 is reflected at the genetic
level, where there is a very high degree of conservation of genetic content
and encoded amino acid sequences. The data also delineate loci of
divergence between the HHV-6 and HHV-7 genomes, which occur at the genome
terminal in the region of the terminal direct-repeat elements and within
limited regions of the unique component. Of potential significance with
respect to biological and evolutionary divergence of HHV-6 and HHV-7 are
notable structural differences in putative transcriptional regulatory genes
specified by the direct-repeat and immediate-early region A loci of these
viruses and the absence of an equivalent of the HHV-6 adeno-associated
virus type 2 rep gene homolog in HHV-7.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
Determination and analysis of the complete nucleotide sequence of human herpesvirus
Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21231, USA.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»