NUCLEOTIDE AND DEDUCED AMINO-ACID-SEQUENCES OF THE M-GENOME AND S-GENOME SEGMENTS OF A SWEDISH PUUMALA VIRUS ISOLATE

The Swedish Puumala (PUU) virus strain Vindeln 83-L20, isolated from a bank vole trapped in 1983 near Vindeln, Vasterbotten county, Sweden, was characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis. The coding region o f the M segment was determined by PCR followed by direct sequencing an d the entire S segment was characterized by cloning and nucleotide seq uence analysis. The genomic organization was found to be very similar to that of other PUU virus strains regarding open reading frames, poly peptide sizes and potential glycosylation sites. According to phylogen etic analysis 83-L20 was found to represent a new lineage within the P uumala virus serotype in the Hantavirus genus. The M segment sequence of 83-L20 was found to be more closely related to the Finnish PUU viru s strains than to strains from Central Europe or from Russia. The evol utionary origin of the S segment was not as clearly resolved since the branching points of all PUU virus strains in the phylogenetic tree we re nearly the same.