CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF THE SIMIAN PARVOVIRUS GENOME

We recently reported the identification of a novel simian parvovirus i n cynomolgus monkeys with severe anemia. We now describe the cloning a nd sequencing of 4986 nucleotides of the viral DNA. Like the human par vovirus B19, simian parvovirus encapsidates both positive and negative single-stranded DNA The positive strand contains two large open readi ng frames, with the left open reading frame encoding the nonstructural protein(s) and the right reading frame encoding the two capsid protei ns. Simian parvovirus has little homology with the autonomous parvovir uses or the dependovirus AAV-2 but 50% overall homology with parvoviru s B19 DNA. At the amino acid level there was 70% homology with B19 cap sid proteins and 50% homology with B19 nonstructural protein. Based on this genetic similarity and with the known tropism of the virus for c ynomolgus erythroid precursors, we suggest that this new virus should be classified as a new member of the Erythrovirus genus of the Parvovi ridae.