TYPE-SPECIFIC AND GROUP-SPECIFIC POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION FOR ADENOVIRUS DETECTION

We report on a 1,551-base-pair-long DNA sequence, encoding the variabl e region and parts of the flanking conserved regions of the human aden ovirus type 8 (AV8) hexon, and a sequence comprising 1,404 base pairs, encoding the corresponding regions of the human adenovirus type 31 (A V31). Comparison of the hexon sequences showed that the major sequence changes were located in loops I-1 and I-2 of the hexon polypeptides w hich form the surface of the virion. We established a type-specific po lymerase chain reaction (PCR), using a combination of a group-specific (general) primer, located in a conserved region of the hexon gene, an d type-specific primers located in the region that encodes for loop I- 2 of the AV8 (subgroup D), AV31 (subgroup A) and AV40 and 41 (both sub group F) hexon polypeptides. We performed PCR directly from several di fferent clinical specimens or from isolates (AV31). Type-specificity w as confirmed by restriction analysis. We also carried out several PCR directly from faecal specimens, using a group-specific primer pair and compared the sensitivity of PCR with that of electron microscopy and enzyme immune assay.