%0 Journal Article %A Müller, H. K. %A Wittek, R. %A Schaffner, W. %A Schümperli, D. %A Menna, A. %A Wyler, R. %T Comparison of Five Poxvirus Genomes by Analysis with Restriction Endonucleases HindIII, BamI and EcoRI %D 1978 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 38 %N 1 %P 135-147 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-38-1-135 %I Microbiology Society, %X SUMMARY The DNAs of rabbitpox, vaccinia, cowpox, ectromelia and fowl pox virus, all grown in the same host system, were cleaved with restriction endonucleases HindIII, BamI and EcoRI. The resulting digestion products were separated by electrophoresis on agarose slab gels. From the similarities and dissimilarities of the migration profiles obtained, it was concluded that vaccinia and rabbitpox virus are genetically the most closely related viruses investigated, although their DNA cleavage patterns are clearly distinguishable. Cowpox and ectromelia virus both show about the same degree of relatedness to each other as to rabbitpox and vaccinia virus. Fowl pox virus, which belongs to the genus Avipoxvirus, contains the largest genome examined (approx. 160 × 106 daltons) and the cleavage patterns of its DNA show no similarities with those of orthopoxvirus DNAs, thus indicating a very low degree of genetic relatedness. We believe that restriction analysis is a useful method for the identification and classification of poxvirus isolates. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-38-1-135