Analysis of structural proteins of measles, canine distemper, and rinderpest viruses.

Serological relationships among measles virus (MV), canine distemper virus (CDV), and rinderpest virus (RV), which constitute morbillivirus subgroup of paramyxoviridae, were investigated by immunoprecipitation and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for their major structural proteins, i.e., hemagglutinin (H), nucleocapsid (NC), fusion (F), and matrix (M) proteins. The molecular weights of the four structural proteins of MV and CDV were confirmed to correspond to those previously reported by several investigators. Structural proteins of RV were analyzed for the first time in the present study and found to have molecular weights of 74,000, 62,000, 44,000, and 40,000 for H, HC, F, and M proteins, respectively. By labeling with glucosamine, the presence of carbohydrate moiety was found in H protein for all the three viruses and in F protein of CDV. The serums from the convalescent animals infected with respective virus disclosed one-way cross pattern depending on the combinations of virus and antiserums, but failed to show the reciprocal cross reactivity. On the other hand, hyperimmune serums to respective virus showed the reciprocal cross-reactivity with the four structural proteins indicating that each of the major structural proteins possesses the antigen common to all three morbilliviruses.