Sequence analysis of hemagglutinin and nucleoprotein genes of measles viruses isolated in Korea during the 2000 epidemic

To characterize the genetic properties of currently circulating measles vir uses in Korea, the complete nucleotide sequences of hemagglutinin (H) prote in and nucleoprotein (N) genes of Korean viruses were analyzed. The entire genes of H and N were directly amplified by RT-PCR from each clinical speci men and sequenced. Sequence analyses of H and N genes indicated that all Ko rean viruses had a high degree of homology ( > 99.8%) when compared with ea ch other. The Korean viruses differed from other wild-type viruses by as mu ch as 6.8% in the H gene and 6.5% in the N gene at the nucleotide level, Th e deduced amino acid variability was up to 6.4% for the H protein and up to 6.5% for the N protein. Phylogenetic analyses of nucleotide sequences and deduced amino acid sequences of the H and N genes revealed that all Korean viruses were grouped into the clade H1. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.