First Molecular Evidence for the Existence of Distinct Fish and Snake Adenoviruses

From adenovirus-like viruses originating from a fish and a snake species, a conserved part of the adenoviral DNA polymerase gene was PCR amplified, cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the snake adenovirus is closely related to the members of the proposed genus Atadenovirus, whereas the fish isolate seems to represent a separate cluster, likely a new genus.