The sequence of the genome of adenovirus type 5 and its comparison with the genome of adenovirus type 2.

We report the sequence of 7558 nucleotides of the adenovirus type 5 genome. With this sequence and previously published data, the complete sequence of this genome is now available and can be compared with the already known sequence of the adenovirus type 2 genome. These two serotypes belong to the same subgroup and sequence comparison shows 94.7% homology between the two genomes. The differences are not at all randomly distributed. Transitions between C and T and between A and G account in total for 58.3% of the differences and even for 68.6% for the genome devoid of the fiber and the hexon genes (instead of 33% expected for an equal probability of changes). In the fiber gene the transitions account for 47% of the differences. The detailed analysis of the nucleotide substitution between the two genomes suggests that the Ad2 genome could derive from that of Ad5 one, with the exception of the fiber gene which is likely to be present in Ad2 genome as a result of genetic recombination. The homology between the amino acids sequences of the structural proteins varies from 100% (proteins pVII and IX) to only 69.2% for the fiber.