RECOMBINANT VECTOR CONTAINING INFECTIOUS HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS GENOME WITH PRESERVED WILD-TYPE CHARACTERISTICS OF CLINICAL ISOLATES

摘要

A recombinant vector containing infectious genome of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and being useful for the production of reconstituted HCMV virus retaining phenotypic characteristics of a clinical virus isolate including the ability to grow on endothelial cells and to induce microfusion is characterized in that it is obtainable by inserting DNA from a clinical isolate of HCMV virus into a bacterial cloning vehicle. Such vector can be used e.g. for production of reconstituted HCMV virus retaining the phenotypic characteristics of a parental clinical isolate and for studying genes and functions of genes of HCMV virus. A further aspect are mutant viruses and inter alia their use for studying aspects of infectivity of HCMV virus.