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A variant of variola virus, characterized by changes in polypeptide and endonuclease profiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1999

K. R. DUMBELL ,
L. HARPER ,
A. BUCHAN ,
N. J. DOUGLASS  and
H. S. BEDSON
K. R. DUMBELL
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK PHLS Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, Salisbury, UK Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town, RSA Present address: PO Box 1933, Somerset West, 7129, South Africa.
L. HARPER
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Birmingham, UK
A. BUCHAN
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Birmingham, UK
N. J. DOUGLASS
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town, RSA
H. S. BEDSON
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Birmingham, UK
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Abstract

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A variant of variola virus is described which produces a late polypeptide of 25 kDa instead of one of 27 kDa and which has an additional endonuclease cleavage site for SalI in the viral DNA. These markers were shown to be genetically independent and to characterize 14 of the 48 variola strains which were examined. The variant strains were isolated from smallpox outbreaks originating in or from Pakistan between 1961 and 1974 and also from two cases at a Mission Hospital in Vellore, India in 1964. No variant strains were found among 9 other isolates from cases of variola major occurring in other parts of India or in Bangladesh, nor among 4 isolates from Indonesia, 15 from Africa or 6 isolates of variola minor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 122 , Issue 2 , April 1999 , pp. 287 - 290
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press