MOLECULAR EVIDENCE FOR DISTINCT GENOTYPES OF MONKEY-B-VIRUS (HERPESVIRUS-SIMIAE) WHICH ARE RELATED TO THE MACAQUE HOST SPECIES

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.