CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF THE SIMIAN PARVOVIRUS GENOME

We recently reported the identification of a novel simian parvovirus in cynomolgus monkeys with severe anemia. We now describe the cloning and sequencing of 4986 nucleotides of the viral DNA. Like the human parvovirus B19, simian parvovirus encapsidates both positive and negative single-stranded DNA The positive strand contains two large open reading frames, with the left open reading frame encoding the nonstructural protein(s) and the right reading frame encoding the two capsid proteins. Simian parvovirus has little homology with the autonomous parvoviruses or the dependovirus AAV-2 but 50% overall homology with parvovirus B19 DNA. At the amino acid level there was 70% homology with B19 capsid proteins and 50% homology with B19 nonstructural protein. Based on this genetic similarity and with the known tropism of the virus for cynomolgus erythroid precursors, we suggest that this new virus should be classified as a new member of the Erythrovirus genus of the Parvoviridae.