Extensive sequence variation exists among isolates of murine cytomegalovirus within members of the m02 family of genes

Abstract

Murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is a widely used model for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and has facilitated many important discoveries about the biology of CMVs. Most of these studies are conducted using the laboratory MCMV strains Smith and K181. However, wild-derived isolates of MCMV, like HCMV clinical isolates, exhibit genetic variation from laboratory strains, particularly at the ends of their genomes in areas containing known or putative immune-evasion and tropism genes. This study analysed the nucleotide sequence of the m02-m05 region, within the m02 gene family, of a number of laboratory and wild-derived MCMV isolates, and found a large degree of variation in both the sequence and arra..