TERMINAL REGION SEQUENCE VARIATIONS IN VARIOLA VIRUS-DNA

Genome DNA terminal region sequences were determined for a Brazilian a lastrim variola minor virus strain Garcia-1966 that was associated wit h an 0.8% case-fatality rate and African smallpox strains Congo-1970 a nd Somalia-1977 associated with variola major (9.6%) and minor (0.4%) mortality rates, respectively. A base sequence identity of greater tha n or equal to 98.8% was determined after aligning 30 kb of the left- o r right-end region sequences with cognate sequences previously determi ned for Asian variola major strains India-1967 (31% death rate) and Ba ngladesh-1975 (18.5% death rate). The deduced amino acid sequences of putative proteins of greater than or equal to 65 amino acids also show ed relatively high identity, although the Asian and African viruses we re clearly more related to each other than to alastrim virus. Alastrim virus contained only 10 of 70 proteins that were 100% identical to ho mologs in Asian strains, and 7 alastrim-specific proteins were noted. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.