Heterogeneity of feline herpesvirus type 1 strains

Abstract

Heterogeneity of 9 feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1) strains consisting of the prototype C27 strain, one French isolate, six Japanese isolates, and the attenuated vaccine F2 strain was examined by biological, immunological, and molecular biological methods. No significant difference was observed in virus growth and antigenic properties among the strains in Crandell feline kidney cell cultures. Hemagglutination activity was also detected in all extracts of cells infected with each strain. However, in immunoblot analysis, a virus-structural immunogenic protein with an M(r) of 36 kDa was lacking in 2 strains, one of which was the vaccine F2 strain, whereas the other immunogenic proteins including three kinds of major glycoproteins were detected in all strains without differences in electrophoretic mobilities. Furthermore, when restriction endonuclease analysis was performed to examine the genomic heterogeneity of strains, the cleavage patterns with the enzyme MluI showed a genomic heterogeneity between wild and vaccine strains. In contrast, only a slight variation in the sizes of some fragments was shown with most of the 7 other enzymes used. These results indicated that the lack of the 36 kDa protein and the MluI cleavage pattern could be used as markers of the vaccine F2 strain. The specific markers are important not only to control the quality of the vaccine but also to evaluate the vaccine immunity in FHV-1 infection in cats.

Identification and nucleotide sequence of a gene in feline herpesvirus type 1 homologous to the herpes simplex virus gene encoding the glycoprotein H

“…The nucleotide sequence of the partial TK gene of our C 7301 strain was identical with that of the prototype strain of FHV-1 C 27 reported previously [34], supporting the homogeneity between the two FHV-1 strains [17]. Furthermore, we also found the 3'-end of the gene homologous to the HSV-1 UL21 [10,26,27], VZV gene 38 [5], and PRV UL21 genes [7,22] in the downstream sequence of the gH homologous gene.…”

Identification and nucleotide sequence of a gene in feline herpesvirus type 1 homologous to the herpes simplex virus gene encoding the glycoprotein B

“…However, the restriction patterns with numbers of enzymes including Sal I were reported to be the same between C 7301 and C27 prototype strains [18]. Furthermore, a 9.6kbp SalI fragment of C 7301 strain was hybridized with a 9.6 kbp SalI fragment of the C 27 strain (data not shown).…”

Feline herpesvirus

“…Antigenically all isolates belong to one serotype, and they are relatively homogeneous on restriction enzyme analysis of their DNA [41,52]. Some minor genetic differences have been reported for some strains, including differences in Mlu 1 cleavage patterns, re-arrangements in the gC gene, and differences in the Sal 1 site in the UL 17 herpes simplex virus gene homologue [43,44,59,76]. Despite this, there is currently no useful method to study the role of individual FeHV-1 isolates in disease.…”