Abstract
1 Hepatitis Viruses Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, U.S.A.
2 Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, Moscow, U.S.S.R.
3 Department of Virus Diseases, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20307-5100, U.S.A.
and4 Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow 117871, U.S.S.R.
Fragments of cDNA representing greater than 99% of the entire genome of wild-type hepatitis A virus (HAV) strain AGM-27, isolated from an African green monkey, were obtained by the polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. Comparison with other HAV isolates revealed differences in the predicted amino acid sequence in functionally critical parts of the genome. Comparison of the biological properties of AGM-27 with those of human wild-type and cell culture-adapted HM-175 strains revealed that AGM-27 grew in cell culture significantly better than did wild-type HM-175, but not as well as cell culture-adapted HM-175. AGM-27 and cell culture-adapted HM-175 were distinguishable by their differential growth in CV-1, FRhK-4 and primary AGMK cells.