Cytomegalovirus Strain Diversity in Seropositive Women

Department of Pediatrics, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: zdnovak{at}peds.uab.edu.

	Abstract

Infection and reinfection with multiple cytomegalovirus (CMV) strains have been shown to occur in immunocompromised individuals, STD clinic attendees and children attending day care centers. To characterize the CMV diversity in healthy seropositive individuals, 16 CMV PCR positive specimens from 113 seropositive women were analyzed for gN and gB glycoprotein genotypes utilizing cloning followed by nucleotide sequencing of the plasmid DNA and/or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The results showed that most PCR positive specimens (93.7%) contained multiple gN and/or gB genomic variants suggesting that the majority of women were infected with more than one virus strain. The results also showed that the RFLP technique might not be sufficiently sensitive to detect all the genomic variants present in a sample.