Polynucleotide Sequence Homologies among the RNAs of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Types A, C and O

Abstract

The labelled RNAs of the three European types of foot-and-mouth disease virus (A2-spain; C-oberbayern; O1-lombardy) have been cross-hybridized with a large excess of denatured unlabelled foot-and-mouth disease virus-specific double-stranded RNA of the respective virus types. The degree of double-strand reformation in the heterologous reactions was taken as a measure of the extent to which polynucleotide sequences were shared by the virus RNAs. Different degrees of hybridization were obtained across different pairs of virus types: A2-spain with O1-lombardy = 65%, A2-spain with C-oberbayern = 44%, O1-lombardy with C-oberbayern = 45%.