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Genetic polymorphism of human herpesvirus-7 among human populations

Laboratoire de Virologie, CERVI, UPRES EA 2387, Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, 83 bld de l’Hôpital, 75651 Paris cedex 13, France¹
Unité d’Epidémiologie et de physiopathologie des virus oncogènes, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris cedex 15, France²
Génétique épidémiologique et structure des populations humaines, INSERM U535, 94276 Kremlin Bicêtre cedex, France³
Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, BP 1274, Yaoundé, Cameroon⁴
Cancer Research Center, RAMS, Kashirskaya 24, 115478, Moscow, Russia⁵
Department of Microbiology, Osaka University Medical School, Suita, Osaka, Japan⁶

Author for correspondence: Henri Agut. Fax +33 1 42 17 74 11. e-mail henri.agut{at}psl.ap-hop-paris.fr

The analysis of three human herpesvirus-7 (HHV-7) genes encoding phosphoprotein p100, glycoprotein B and major capsid protein respectively had previously shown the existence of distinct gene alleles, leading to the concept of HHV-7 variants. We have analysed the distribution of HHV-7 variants among 297 distinct subjects who belonged to different human populations from Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Two variants, designated Co1 and Co2, were found in 52% and 20% of studied subjects. Ten other variants, designated Co3–Co12, were less frequent and classified into two groups related to Co1 and Co2 respectively. While the former group was ubiquitous and the most frequent in Africa and Asia, the latter one was predominantly found in European and Mongol populations. Despite the high stability of the HHV-7 genome, a few nucleotide substitutions at precise positions define distinct variants which, to some extent, behave as markers of human populations.