Comparison of human rotaviruses isolated in Mexico City and in Santiago, Chile, by electrophoretic migration of their double-stranded ribonucleic acid genome segments

Abstract

During Oct.-Dec. 1979, rotaviruses were obtained from infants and young cildren hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis in Mexico City and were compared by analysis of the migration of their double-stranded RNA genome segments in gel electrophoresis. Comparison of the results of this analysis and of those of similar studies carried out in 1977 and 1978 showed that the 2 rotavirus electropherotypes designated 2s and 21 were continuously present and that the proportion of these 2 types in hospitalized patients varied greatly year to year. The RNA from rotaviruses 2s and 21 differed in the electrophoretic migration of at least 8 genome segments. RNA from virus assigned to the same electropherotypes were not necessarily identical: on the basis of small but significant differences in the migration of segment 7, 8 or 9, isolates of types 2s and 21 could be assigned to 2 and 3 different subtypes, respectively. Human rotaviruses obtained in a distant geographical region, Santiago, Chile, in July 1979, had RNA electrophoretic patterns similar to that of electropherotype 21 but different from it in the migration of 1 or 2 of the larger RNA segments.