Coinfection with multiple TT virus strains belonging to different genotypes is a common event in healthy Brazilian adults

Testing of the DNA of TT virus (TTV) was done with serum samples obtained f rom 191 persons working in a public hospital of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, TTV DNA was detected by PCR in the sera of 125 (65.4%) individuals . PCR products were cloned, and sequences with a length of 159 bases surrou nding the TATA signal region were determined for 100 clones derived from 31 individuals, One clone from each of 23 subjects was sequenced, while 7 to 19 clones from eight individuals were sequenced. None of the sera contained a viral sequence identical to that of any other individual. Phylogenetic a nalysis revealed the existence of a divergent TTV genotype possessing a sin gle-base deletion at position 140. Among the eight persons for whom various sequences were analyzed, six were coinfected with between two and seven TT V strains belonging to different genotypes, The results suggest that coinfe ction with multiple TTV strains belonging to different genotypes is a commo n event in healthy Brazilian adults.