Rabies virus glycoprotein analogs: biosynthesis in Escherichia coli.

The surface of rabies virus is composed of an approximately 60,000 dalton glycoprotein, in which most of the antigenic and immunogenic determinants of the virus reside. We have constructed plasmids for the direct expression in Escherichia coli of the mature full length rabies glycoprotein gene and also for the expression of a glycoprotein gene which has been truncated to exclude the coding region for a hydrophobic, possibly transmembrane, domain of the protein. Escherichia coli harboring the plasmids synthesize analog proteins which conform by several biochemical and antigenic criteria to rabies glycoprotein.