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Human adenovirus type 3 (HAdV-B3) has an apparently stable genome yet remains a major circulating and problematic respiratory pathogen. Comparisons of the prototype genome to genomes from three current field strains, including two isolated from epidemics, and a laboratory strain, yielded small-scale nucleotide variations across 50 years of time and space (U.S. and China). This is in contrast to the recombination events that have been reported recently for HAdV genomes. Recombinant genomes have been identified in emergent HAdV pathogens and is a pathway for the molecular evolution of types. These two contrasting views of HAdV genome stability have repercussions in the development and use of vaccines for countering HAdV-B3, as well as in the continued effectiveness of vaccines developed against earlier and current circulating types of HAdV., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Despite the success of the adenovirus vaccine administered to US military trainees, acute respiratory disease (ARD) surveillance still detected breakthrough infections (respiratory illnesses associated with the adenovirus serotypes specifically targeted by the vaccine). To explore the role of adenoviral co-infection (simultaneous infection by multiple pathogenic adenovirus species) in breakthrough disease, we examined specimens from patients with ARD by using 3 methods to detect multiple adenoviral species: a DNA microarray, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and a multiplex PCR assay. Analysis of 52 samples (21 vaccinated, 31 unvaccinated) collected from 1996 to 2000 showed that all vaccinated samples had co-infections. Most of these co-infections were community-acquired serotypes of species B1 and E. Unvaccinated samples primarily contained only 1 species (species E) associated with adult respiratory illness. This study highlights the rarely reported phenomenon of adenoviral co-infections in a clinically relevant environment suitable for the generation of new recombinational variants.