Conservation of the fourth gene among rotaviruses recovered from asymptomatic newborn infants and its possible role in attenuation

Journal Article · Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1986 · J. Virol.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6398919

Flores, J; Midthun, K; Hoshino, Y; Green, K; Gorziglia, M; Kapikian, A Z; Chanock, R M

RNA-RNA hybridization was performed to assess the extent of genetic relatedness among human rotaviruses isolated from children with gastroenteritis and from asymptomatic newborn infants. /sup 32/P-labeled single-stranded RNAs produced by in vitro transcription from viral cores of the different strains tested were used as probes in two different hybridization assays: (1) undenatured genomic RNAs were resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, denatured in situ, electrophoretically transferred to diazobenzyloxymethyl-paper (Northern blots), and then hybridized to the probes under two different conditions of stringency; and (ii) denatured genomic double-stranded RNAs were hybridized to the probes in solution and the hybrids which formed were identified by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. When analyzed by Northern blot hybridization at a low level of stringency, all genes from the strains tested cross-hybridized, providing evidence for some sequence homology in each of the corresponding genes. However, when hybridization stringency was increased, a difference in gene 4 sequence was detected between strains recovered from asymptomatic newborn infants (nursery strains) and strains recovered from infants and young children with diarrhea. Although the nursery strains exhibited serotypic diversity, the fourth gene appeared to be highly conversed. These results were confirmed and extended during experiments in which the RNA-RNA hybridization was carried out in solution and the resulting hybrids were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Full-length hybrids did not form between the fourth genes from the nursery strains and the corresponding genes from the strains recovered from symptomatic infants and young children.

• Research Organization: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6398919
• Journal Information: J. Virol.; (United States), Vol. 60:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
INFANTS
VIRAL DISEASES
RNA
HYBRIDIZATION
VIRUSES
GENETICS
ELECTROPHORESIS
GENES
PHOSPHORUS 32
TRANSCRIPTION
AGE GROUPS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BIOLOGY
CHILDREN
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DISEASES
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MICROORGANISMS
NUCLEI
NUCLEIC ACIDS
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARASITES
PHOSPHORUS ISOTOPES
RADIOISOTOPES
550701* - Microbiology- Tracer Techniques