Abstract

Herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2) is the main cause of genital herpes infection. Its prevalence is increasing worldwide and varies widely with generally higher rate in developing than developed countries and urban than rural areas. Identification of glycoprotein G (gG-2) from HSV-2 as type-specific antigen have been helpful in development of reliable and accurate type-specific serological methods. For determination of the genetic relationship of HSV-2 glycoprotein G gene (gG) in Iran with those in other countries, DNA fragment of 1100 bp corresponding to gG from sixHSV-2 strains have been isolated from human infected sera samples in Iran, it was amplified in PCR system and was sequenced for determining nucleotide sequence and compared with identified nucleotide sequence of this gene in other countries. The results indicated the presence of 0.3 to 9.5% variability in gG gene in six sequenced samples in Iran. A comparison made on gG gene in Iran with other countries show 0.3 to 14.3% variability in this gene. The greatest sequence similarity exists between sequences of gG in Iran and Sweden (EU018098 and EU018128) with a sequence similarity of 99.7% and the least relationship exists between sequences of gG gene ofHSV-2 in Iran and USA (DQ236139) with a similarity of 85.7%.

Key words: Herpes simplex virus type-2, gG gene, phylogenetic relationship, Iran.