Comparative Sequence Analysis of the Hexon Gene in the Entire Spectrum of Human Adenovirus Serotypes: Phylogenetic, Taxonomic, and Clinical Implications

Volume 79, no. 20, p. 12635-12642, 2005. In our recent article on comparative sequence analysis of the human adenovirus (AdV) hexon gene, we proposed a classification of serotypes 50 and 51 which was different from that described earlier (J. C. De Jong, A. G. Wermenbol, M. W. Verweij-Uijterwaal, K. W. Slaterus, P. Wertheim-Van Dillen, G. J. J. Van Doornum, S. H. Khoo, and J. C. Hierholzer, J. Clin. Microbiol. 37:3940-3945, 1999). Based on our sequence analysis, these AdV serotypes were assigned to species D and species B, respectively. After these observations were published, our attention was drawn to an apparent mistake in the classification of these two serotypes (L. Crawford-Miksza [California Department of Health Services, Richmond], personal communication). Following the first description of AdV serotypes 50 and 51 (J. C. De Jong et al., J. Clin. Microbiol. 37:3940-3945, 1999), an error in the labelling of these two serotypes, which has led to the distribution of these viruses with reversed labelling by the ATCC, has occurred. This error has not been adequately communicated to the scientific community and has resulted in the wrong assignment of AdV serotypes 50 and 51 in our paper. We would therefore like to correct the classification reported in our article: serotype 50 belongs to species B and serotype 51 to species D, as published originally (J. C. De Jong et al., J. Clin Microbiol. 37:3940-3945, 1999). The hexon gene sequences of these two serotypes determined in our laboratory, which are deposited in the NCBI database, have already been correctly reassigned and are registered under the following accession numbers: for B50, DQ149643; and for D51, DQ149642.