关键词: 人巨细胞病毒, UL144基因, 黄疸, 多态性

Abstract: 【Objective】 To investigate the genetic variations of cytomegalovirus UL144 gene in clinical strains and to explore the relationship between the UL144 genotype and specimens in late jaundice cases. 【Methods】 PCR was performed to amplify the entire HCMV-UL144 gene region of clinical strains, which had been proven containing detectable HCMV-DNA by FQ-PCR. The PCR products were sequenced and phylogenetic analysis was conducted using BioEdit, DNAstar, GeneDoc. 【Results】 1) 30 infants with late jaundice were HCMV infection, the positive rate was 30.6 %; 2) Alignment comparison of clinical strains UL144 sequences with Toledo disclosed nucleic acid variability rate 80.4% to 99.2%. The UL144 sequence distributed among three genotypes,Group1(25%), Group2(25%), and Group3(50%)respectively.3) The UL144 protein consists of two cysteine-rich domains (CRD), one transmembrane domain, and one cytoplasmic domain (cyto). There was a high level of conservation in the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains of UL144 between the different isolates while was slightly more variable in CRD1. 【Conclusions】 1)HCMV infection may be etiologically associated with late jaundice in some infants. 2) Although the genomic sequence of UL144 are generally well conserved in the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains, a certain number of genes exhibit a high degree of inter-strain variation in CRD1. 3)The group 3 genotype is more prevalent in the late jaundice cases than other genotype.

Key words: human cytomegalovirus, UL144 gene, jaundice, polymorphism