Preferential associations of alleles of three distinct genes argue for theexistence of two prototype variants of human herpesvirus 7

We had previously described six distinct alleles of the glycoprotein B (gB) gene of human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7). The genetic changes corresponding to these alleles did not affect gB gene transcription or translation in in vit ro assays. The study of distinct HHV-7-positive human samples showed prefer ential associations of some gB alleles with some alleles of two other genes , distantly located on the HHV-7 genome, coding for the phosphoprotein p100 (p100) and the major capsid protein (MCP). Two allele combinations, corres ponding to 44 and 31% of the samples studied, respectively, were interprete d as the genetic signatures of two major prototype HHV-7 variants.