A new parvovirus genotype persistent in human skin

Parvovirus B19 is the exclusive human pathogen of the Erythrovirus genus. In classical view, the B19 DNA sequence shows little variability, with no disease-specific or tissue type specific associations. We examined skin biopsies from patients with B19-unrelated skin disease or from constitutionally healthy adults by polymerase chain reaction assays for four different genomic regions of the B19 virus. Sequencing showed that the skin-derived viral DNA differed within the protein-coding region from the B19 reference sequences by 10.8% and from the V9 variant by 8.6% and within the noncoding region (covering nucleotides 189-435 of the promoter region) by 26.5 and 17.2%, respectively. Despite this sequence difference, the promoter region was shown by a luciferase gene expression assay to be biologically active. We have detected a new B19 virus genotype, K71, which differs extensively from the known B19-virus genotypes and is persistently carried in human skin. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).