CODING STRATEGY OF THE S-GENOMIC AND M-GENOMIC SEGMENTS OF A HANTAVIRUS REPRESENTING A NEW SUBTYPE OF THE PUUMALA SEROTYPE

The hantavirus strain Vranica was previously reported to have been iso lated from a bank vole in Bosnia-Hercegovina and associated with the o ccurrence of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HRFS) in humans. T he complete cDNA nucleotide sequences of the small (S) and medium (M) genomic RNA segments of this virus were determined. Major open reading frames were found in the S and M segment between nucleotide positions 43 and 1341 coding for a polypeptide of 433 amino acid residues and b etween nucleotide positions 41 and 3484 coding for 1148 amino acid res idues, respectively. The analysis and the alignment of the nucleotide and the derived amino acid sequences with known sequences of other han tavirus strains demonstrate that Vranica resembles Swedish strains and represents a new virus subtype of the Puumala serotype distinct from the subtypes represented by virus strains CG18-20 and Sotkamo.