Comparison of Genetic Variability at Multiple Loci across the Genomes of the Major Subtypes of Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Reveals Evidence for Recombination and for Two Distinct Types of Open Reading Frame K15 Alleles at the Right-Hand End

作者：Lynn Poole, Jian-Chao Zong, D M Ciufo, Donald J. Alcendor, Jennifer S. Cannon, Richard F. Ambinder, Jan M. Orenstein, Marvin S. Reitz, Gary S. Hayward · 发表于：Journal of Virology · 年份：1999 · DOI：10.1128/jvi.73.8.6646-6660.1999 · 被引用次数：212 · 研究领域：Viral-associated cancers and disorders、Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research、Parvovirus B19 Infection Studies

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus or human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) DNA is found consistently in nearly all classical, endemic, transplant, and AIDS-associated KS lesions, as well as in several AIDS-associated lymphomas. We have previously sequenced the genes for the highly variable open reading frame K1 (ORF-K1) protein from more than 60 different HHV8 samples and demonstrated that they display up to 30% amino acid variability and cluster into four very distinct evolutionary subgroups (the A, B, C, and D subtypes) that correlate with the major migrationary diasporas of modern humans. Here we have extended this type of analysis to six other loci across the HHV8 genome to further evaluate overall genotype patterns and the potential for chimeric genomes. Comparison of the relatively conserved ORF26, T0.7/K12, and ORF75 gene regions at map positions 0. 35, 0.85, and 0.96 revealed typical ORF-K1-linked subtype patterns, except that between 20 and 30% of the genomes analyzed proved to be either intertypic or intratypic mosaics. In addition, a 2,500-bp region found at the extreme right-hand side of the unique segment in 45 HHV8 genomes proved to be highly diverged from the 3,500-bp sequence found at this position in the other 18 HHV8 genomes examined. Furthermore, these previously uncharacterized "orphan" region sequences proved to encompass multiexon latent-state mRNAs encoding two highly diverged alleles of the novel ORF-K15 protein. The predominant (P) and minor (M) forms...