MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF COXSACKIEVIRUS A16 REVEALS A NEW GENETIC GROUP OF ENTEROVIRUSES

Coxsackievirus A16 (CAV16) a member of the Enterovirus genus of Picorn aviridae, is associated with hand-foot-and-mouth disease, a febrile pa pulovesicular rash of childhood. We have determined the complete nucle otide sequence of the genome of the prototype strain of CAV16 which co nsists of 7413 nucleotides plus the poly(A) tail. Alignment of the seq uence with the previously studied enteroviruses showed that the genome organization is typical for a member of this virus genus. However, th e predicted amino acid sequence of individual CAV16 proteins differed from those of all previously sequenced enteroviruses by 25-62%. The ge nomic sequence of CAV2 in the capsid and 2A polypeptide regions was al so determined. It was found to differ from that of CAV16 by no more th an 5-43%. The partial nucleotide sequence of enterovirus 71 in the VP1 -2A region suggested that it is also closely related to CAV16. The res ults indicate that CAV16, CAV2, and enterovirus 71 represent a distinc t genetic group of enteroviruses. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.