Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) causes varicella during primary infection and zoster after reactivation from latency. Both varicella and zoster can be prevented by live attenuated vaccines, and the mechanisms for the attenuation of the vaccines are not c...
Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) causes varicella during primary infection and zoster after reactivation from latency. Both varicella and zoster can be prevented by live attenuated vaccines, and the mechanisms for the attenuation of the vaccines are not clearly elucidated yet. This study aims to understand the mutation events of VZV during cell culture by comparison of the complete genome sequences of plague purified VZV clinical (PP2) and vaccine (PP3) strain. Both PP2 and PP3 strains were passaged in vitro cell culture up to 60 passages and the genome sequences of p4, p30 and p60 were determined. Four substitution mutations were found in PP2, which 59 mutations including 55 substitutions and 4 insertion/deletion were identified in PP3. Most (52/55) of the substitutions in PP3 were transitional and either A→ G or T→ C. Insertional deletions were found in regions with tandem repeat of same nucleotides, and resulted in an early termination in ORF 15. Both infectivity and genome copy number appeared to be increased in high passage p60 than in low passage p4 in PP3. Mutations occurred approximately two-times more during early passaging (p4 to p30) than during late passaging (p30 to p60). Further studies with additional clinical and vaccine strains will help to understand the mechanisms of evolutionary mutation and attenuation of VZV.