THE COMPLETE NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF A VARIANT OF COXSACKIEVIRUS A24, AN AGENT CAUSING ACUTE HEMORRHAGIC CONJUNCTIVITIS

The complete nucleotide sequence was determined for the cDNAs that represent the RNA genome of the standard strain of a variant of coxsackievirus A24, the EH24/70, one of the agents causing acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis. The genome is 7461 nucleotide long and is polyadenylated at the 3'-end terminus. Following a 750-nucleotide 5'-noncoding region, there was a long open reading frame of 6642 nucleotides, which serve to encode a viral polyprotein consisting of 2214 amino acids. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of the polyprotein with those of known enteroviruses allowed us to predict the possible cleavage sites. The overall structure and the organization of the RNA genome is typical for an enterovirus. Based on the similarity of the nucleotide sequence of the 5' and 3' noncoding regions. together with the amino-acid sequence of the encoded proteins, EH24/70 appeared to be closely related to polioviruses and coxsackie-virus A21.