Structural variability in the genome of the Thermoproteus tenax virus TTV1

Six variants of the TTV1 genome, including the primary isolate, have been characterized. DNA sequence comparison of 'wild-type' virus (WT) and one of the variants (VT3) showed that differences are due to insertions and deletions that were confined to contiguous portions of two distinct ClaI fragments. Seven similar short DNA sequences (30-102 bp) were involved in the variation. The deletions and insertions of these short DNA sequences occurred in every case adjacent to the 8 bp consensus sequence 5'-ACXCCTAC-3' which formed the 5' flank of the segments involved.