Al. Smith et al., MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR DISTINCT GENOTYPES OF MONKEY-B-VIRUS (HERPESVIRUS-SIMIAE) WHICH ARE RELATED TO THE MACAQUE HOST SPECIES, Journal of virology (Print), 72(11), 1998, pp. 9224-9232
Although monkey B virus (herpesvirus simiae; BV) is common in all maca
que species, fatal human infections appear to be associated with expos
ure to rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). suggesting that BV isolates f
rom rhesus monkeys may be more lethal to nonmacaques than are BV strai
ns indigenous to other macaque species. To determine if significant di
fferences that would support this supposition exist among BV isolates,
we compared multiple BV strains isolated from rhesus, cynomolgus, pig
tail, and Japanese macaques, Antigenic analyses indicated that while t
he isolates were very closely related to one another, there are some a
ntigenic determinants that are specific to BV isolates ft om different
macaque species. Restriction enzyme digest patterns of viral DNA reve
aled marked similarities between rhesus and Japanese macaque isolates,
while pigtail and cynomolgus macaque isolates had distinctive cleavag
e patterns, To further compare genetic diversity among BV isolates, DN
A sequences from two regions of the viral genome containing genes that
are conserved (UL27 and US6) and variable (US4 and US5) among primate
alphaherpesviruses, as well as from two noncoding intergenic regions,
were determined, From these sequence data and a phylogenetic analysis
of them it was evident that while all isolates were closely related s
trains of BV, there were three distinct genotypes, The three BV genoty
pes were directly related to the macaque species of origin and were co
mposed of (i) isolates from rhesus and Japanese macaques, (ii) cynomol
gus monkey isolates, and (iii) isolates fr om pigtail macaques, This s
tudy demonstrates the existence of different BV genotypes which are re
lated to the macaque host species and thus provides a molecular basis
for the possible existence of BV isolates which vary in their levels o
f pathogenicity for nonmacaque species.