Genotypes of JC virus in east, central and southwest Europe

Distinctive genotypes of JC virus have been described for the major contine ntal landmasses. Studies on European-Americans and small cohorts in Europe showed predominantly Type 1. Types 2 and 7 are found in Asia, and Types 3 a nd 6 in Africa. These genotypes differ in sequence by about 1-3 %. Each gen otype may have several subtypes which differ from each other by about 0.5-1 %. The genotypes can be defined by a distinctive pattern of nucleotides in a typing region of the VP1 gene. This genotyping approach has been confirm ed by phylogenetic reconstruction using the entire genome exclusive of the rearranging regulatory region. In this first large European study, we repor t on the urinary excretion of ICV DNA of 350 individuals from Poland, Hunga ry, Germany and Spain. We included Gypsy cohorts in Hungary (Roma), Germany (Sinti), and Spain (Gitano), as well as Basques in Spain. We show that whi le Type 1 predominates in Europe, the proportions of Type 1A and 1B may dif fer from East to Southwest Europe. Type 4, closely related to the Type 1 se quence (only similar to1% difference) was a minor genotype in Germany, Pola nd and Spain, but represented the majority in Basques. The Gitanos in Spain showed a variant Type 4 sequence termed 'Rom-1'. Interestingly, neither th e Gitanos in Spain, nor Sinti or Roma in Germany or Hungary showed the Type 2 or Type 7 genotype that might be expected if their origins were in an As ian population.