Genome variants of human adenovirus 40 (subgroup F)

Twenty-six strains of faecal adenovirus from three continents (two from Europe, 16 from South Africa, and eight from Canada) were typed as Ad40 by restriction enzyme analysis of the DNA using Sma I. The DNA of the strains was further compared by digestion with six other enzymes, namely Bam HI, Eco RI, Bgl I, Xho I, Sst I, and Hind III. At least two different restriction profiles were found to exist for each enzyme. Nineteen of the 26 strains studied had the same combination of profiles for all the enzymes, within the limits of resolution of the technique. This genome type was detected from all three continents and included the Finnish reference strain Hovi-X. The other seven strains were genome variants, representing five other genome types. Three genome types were detected only in South African specimens, whereas one genome type was detected in single specimens from both South Africa and Canada. Strain Dugan from Holland, indistinguishable from other Ad40 strains in neutralization tests using polyclonal antibody preparations [de Jong et al, 1983], deviated from the common Hovi-X-like genome on digestion of the DNA with any of the enzymes except Sma I.