HIGHLY HETEROGENEOUS FIBER GENES IN THE 2 CLOSELY-RELATED ADENOVIRUS GENOME TYPES AD35P AND AD34A

Two adenovirus isolates from urine, Ad35p (from a bone marrow recipien t) and Ad34a (from a hemorrhagic cystitis patient), were compared rega rding their fiber gene organization and hemagglutinating capacity, The fiber serves as the ligand between the virus capsid and the host cell receptor. The Ad35p fiber gene encoded a 323-amino-acid protein, and the Ad34a fiber gene a 325 amino acid protein. The two fibers manifest ed 62.4% overall amino acid sequence homology, the differences predomi nantly occurring within the knob region where sequence homology was on ly 49.5%. The knob region of Ad34a was virtually identical to that of Ad11p which also causes hemorrhagic cystitis. Unlike all other known s ubgenus B adenoviruses, in the Ad35p fiber an asparagine constituted t he C-terminus. Although both Ad34a and Ad35p viruses can hemagglutinat e monkey erythrocytes, the hemagglutination inhibition test showed the m to differ from each other in the epitopes expressed on the fibers. ( C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.