DNA of 21 clinical cytomegalovirus strains detected by hybridization to cloned DNA fragments of laboratory strain AD-169.

Nine distinct DNA probes prepared from cloned DNA fragments of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) strain AD-169, each representing a relatively small portion of the total genome, were able to detect all 21 epidemiologically distinct clinical isolates of CMV that had been passaged in tissue culture. All probes were of comparable sensitivity in the detection of CMV, and under the hybridization conditions used, no probe gave an unusually high background with uninfected host cells.