Genome variants of adenovirus 41 (subgroup G) from children with diarrhoea in South Africa.

Fifteen strains of faecal adenovirus from 3 continents (4 from Europe, 4 from Canada, and 7 from South Africa) were typed as Ad41a by restriction enzyme analysis o the DNA using Sma I. The DNA of the strains was further compared by digestion with 9 other restriction enzymes. All strains had the same cleavage sites for enzymes Bam HI, Bg1 I, Sst I, Pvu II, and Xho I, indicating a close relationship. The Canadian and European strains also had the same cleavage sites for Hind III, Eco RI, Bst EII, and Kpn I, within the limits of resolution of the technique. Only one of the 7 South African strains had a combination of restriction sites identical to the European and Canadian strains, whereas Hind III, Eco RI, Bst EII, and Kpn I digests of the other 6 South African Ad41 DNAs showed the existence of 4 other genome types of Ad41. All 15 Ad41a strains studied were easily distinguished from Ad40 strains using any of the 10 restriction enzymes.