Intrapatient variation of the respiratory syncytial virus attachment protein gene.

Intrapatient variability of the attachment (G) protein gene of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was examined using both population and single-genome sequencing. Samples from three patients infected with a group B virus variant which has a 60-nucleotide duplication in the G protein gene were examined. These samples were chosen because occasional mixed sequence bases were observed. In a minority of RSV genomes from these patients considerable variability was found, including point mutations, insertions, and deletions. Of particular note, the deletion of the exact portion of the gene which had been duplicated in some isolates was observed in viral RNAs from two patients.