Recurring theme of changes in the transcriptional control region of BK virus during adaptation to cell culture.

BK virus, when cloned directly from human urine, shows no amplification in the transcriptional control region, unlike cell culture-passaged strains, but possesses an additional sequence element. To confirm our proposal that this represents the archetypal in vivo form of the virus, we passaged this BK virus through cell culture. Changes in the transcriptional control region occurred as early as the first passage and were characterized in all cases by a deletion followed by amplification events.