Adenoviruses recovered from the northern Stockholm area during 1987-1992 have been subjected to restriction endonuclease analysis. Adenoviruses of all subgenera (A-F) were represented and a considerable degree of serotype variation was seen, e.g. the rarely encountered subgenus A viruses were frequently isolated in the present study. Of 16 subgenus A isolates, Ad31 predominated with 12 strains which were equally distributed into the DNA-variants D2 and D7. Analysis of 38 Ad3 isolates revealed four DNA-variants: D1, D3, D10, and "Sto1". The ten Ad7 isolates belonged all to the DNA-variant D5 of Ad7. Of 27 Ad1 strains, 11 belonged to D10, followed by the DNA-variants D4 and D7 with four strains each. Among Ad2 isolates, D2 or D2-like strains prevailed (23/28). Of six Ad5 strains, three belonged to the DNA-variant D2. The most notable subgenus D event was a nosocomial outbreak of keratokonjunctivitis due ot Ad19a. In addition, a collection of heterogenous subgenus D strains was detected, most of which untypable by RE-analysis. Among the six Ad4 isolates of subgenus E, both genomic clusters (p and a, respectively) of Ad4 were recognized. Concerning the clinical important subgenus F adenoviruses, only two strains of Ad40 were detected as compared to 12 strains of Ad41, all of which ascribed to the DNA-variant D12 of Ad41.

Two divergent strains of adenovirus type 31 were analyzed by neutralization test and restriction endonuclease (RE) patterns in an effort to find the basis for their genetic variability. One strain, isolated from the throat of a child in Maryland during an upper respiratory illness in 1968, was partially neutralized by Ad 31 antisera (to 16-fold lower than homologous titer) while its own antiserum fully neutralized prototype Ad 31 virus, but shared only 9% of comigrating RE fragments with Ad 31 prototype (vs. 30% with Ad 18 prototype); however, PCR tests specific for the inverted terminal repeat (ITR) sequence of Ads 12 and 18 were negative. The other strain, recovered from a stool sample from an infant with diarrhea in Georgia in 1979, was inhibited by Ad 31 antiserum to within 4-fold homologous titer, but shared only 15% of comigrating fragments with Ad 31 prototype (vs. 91% with Ad 18 prototype); ITR-specific PCR tests with this virus were positive for Ad 12/Ad 18. These data suggest that both strains are from separate evolutionary lines of Ad 31 unrelated to all other isolates studied to date by RE analysis, and that the partial neutralization by prototype Ad 31 antisera might represent small mutations in the hexon gene.