Co-replication of several isotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Genome segments of the foot-and-mouth disease virus isolates O1Lombardy and O3 Venezuela that encode, among other products, capsid protein VP1 were amplified using PCR, and the products were cloned and sequenced. The alignment of up to 11 O3-specific sequences revealed six silent nucleotide changes a well as six changes that cause amino acid substitutions in capsid protein VP1 at positions 45, 83, 141, 145, 170 and 178. The heterogeneity of three O1-specific sequences consisted of seven silent exchanges and amino acid changes at positions 85 and 134 on VP1. Amplification, subclonning and sequencing of cloned O3-specific cDNA was performed to examine the nature of the sequence heterogeneity. As no difference was found among five subcloned sequences, we conclude that the Taq polymerase copied the DNA correctly. The sequence heterogeneity observed with both virus isolates is, therefore, consistent with the quasispecies structure of foot-and-mouth disease virus. Furthermore, amino acid changes at a number of sites have been found to be involved in the formation or modulation of neutralizing epitopes. The novel aspect of this study is the ability to estimate, by cloning of PCR products, the number of virus isotypes, possibly varying in antigenicity, that are able to co-propagate. Seven isotypes of O3 Venezuela were identified. Some are of particular interest because they exhibit a change at VP1 codon 145 that causes the replacement of arginine, possibly essential for virus attachment to cells, by isoleucine.