[Identification of a new antigenic variant of simian adenovirus SA7 P]

Serological, biological, and physico-chemical properties of a new antigenic variant of simian adenovirus SA7P were studied. Neutralization tests with hyperimmune specific antisera demonstrated the new antigenic variant SA7P to have very significant antigenic similarity with the prototype SA7 strain. Same as the latter, SA7P does not agglutinate rat red blood cells, is highly oncogenic for newborn Syrian hamsters and capable of transforming rat kidney cell cultures. At the same time, the method of heteroduplex analysis showed SA7P DNA to be homologous to DNA of the reference SA7 strain by 85% and to contain 3 non-homologous regions in the right part of the virus genome. Comparison of the physical maps of the 2 virus DNAs by 4 restrictases established considerable differences in the number of recognition sites and their location.