Identification of newly detected, drug-related HCMV UL97- and UL54-mutations using a modified plaque reduction assay

New mutations in the UL97- and UL54-gene of HCMV are still detected continuously. Furthermore, several mutations occurring in the same codon often show divergent phenotypes and the accumulation of multiple mutations in one virus strain may lead to increased or decreased drug-resistance. Therefore, characterization of newly detected mutations by marker transfer analysis is essential to confirm that genotypically detected mutations can produce phenotypic resistance. These results allow reliable interpretation of fast genotypic methods generally used in diagnostics.