G. Dominguez et al., Human herpesvirus 6B genome sequence: Coding content and comparison with human herpesvirus 6A, J VIROLOGY, 73(10), 1999, pp. 8040-8052
Human herpesvirus 6 variants A and B (HHV-6A and HHV-6B) are closely relate
d viruses that can be readily distinguished by comparison of restriction en
donuclease profiles and nucleotide sequences. The viruses are similar with
respect to genomic and genetic organization, and their genomes cross-hybrid
ize extensively, but they differ in biological and epidemiologic features.
Differences include infectivity of T-cell lines, patterns of reactivity wit
h monoclonal antibodies, and disease associations. Here we report the compl
ete genome sequence of HHV-6B strain Z29 I[HHV-6B(Z29)], describe its genet
ic content, and present an analysis of the relationships between HHV-6A and
HHV-6B, As sequenced, the HHV-6B(Z29) genome is 162,114 bp long and is com
posed of a 144,528-bp unique segment (11) bracketed by 8,793-bp direct repe
ats (DR). The genomic sequence allows prediction of a total of 119 unique o
pen reading frames (ORFs), 9 of which are present only in HHV-6B, Splicing
is predicted in 11 genes, resulting in the 119 ORFs composing 97 unique gen
es. The overall nucleotide sequence identity between HHV-6A and HHV-6B is 9
0%. The most divergent regions are DR and the right end of U, spanning ORFs
U86 to U100. These regions have 85 and 72% nucleotide sequence identity, r
espectively. The amino acid sequences of 13 of the 17 ORFs at the right end
of U differ by more than 10%, with the notable exception of U94, the adeno
-associated virus type 2 rep homolog, which differs by only 2.4%. This regi
on also includes putative cis-acting sequences that are likely to be involv
ed in transcriptional regulation of the major immediate-early locus, The ca
talog of variant-specific genetic differences resulting from our comparison
of the genome sequences adds support to previous data indicating that HHV-
6A and HHV-6B are distinct herpesvirus species.