[Genome analysis of adenovirus type 7 and adenovirus type 11].

PURPOSE: To study the epidemiology of adenovirus type 7 (Ad 7) conjunctivitis and adenovirus type 11 (Ad 11) conjunctivitis by determining genome types and subgenome types.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

For Ad 7 I used twelve strains from patients with acute viral conjunctivitis and one strain from a patient with pneumonia. For Ad 11 I used seventeen strains from patients with acute viral conjunctivitis and three strains from patients with cystitis. For Ad 7 genome typing, I used eleven DNA restriction endonucleases (REs) recognizing 6- or 7-base pair sequences and for Ad 11 genome typing, I used seven. For Ad 7 and for Ad 11 subgenome typing, I used Taq I and Hinf I which recognize 4- or 5-base pair sequences.

RESULTS

The thirteen Ad 7 strains all belonged to the same genome type and subgenome type. Ad 11 strains showed six genome types. Ad 11 p was the most frequent strain. Fifteen Ad 11 p strains showed three subgenome types, but none of them was the same as the prototype.

CONCLUSION

Ad 7 seems quite stable and the Ad 7 epidemic may recur again. On the other hand Ad 11 showed several different types. Ad 11 was probably not epidemic in the first half of the 1990's.