Oligonucleotide fingerprint analysis of coxsackievirus A10 isolated in Japan

Eight coxsackievirus A10 strains isolated in 1978 and in 1981 and 1982 from patients with hand, foot-and-mouth disease and with herpangina at a dispensary in Matsue city were compared by RNA fingerprinting techniques. The oligonucleotide maps of the four 1978 isolates were related to each other by 85 to 93% with respect to their large T1 oligonucleotides. In contrast, the oligonucleotide maps of the four 1981 and 1982 isolates were very different from each other. Co-electrophoresis experiments revealed that the 1981 and 1982 strains shared only 17 to 34% of their large oligonucleotides. In addition, some large oligonucleotides were found in most of the fingerprint maps of isolates from 1978 to 1982, suggesting that there are regions in the genome of coxsackievirus A10 which are not subject to mutational changes.