Mao J, Tham T N, Gentry G A, Aubertin A, Chinchar V G
Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, 39216, USA.
Virology. 1996 Feb 15;216(2):431-6. doi: 10.1006/viro.1996.0080.
The nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding in the major capsid protein (MCP) of frog virus 3 (FV3) has been determined and compared to other iridovirus capsid genes. Nucleotide sequence and S1 nuclease analysis showed that the FV3 MCP gene encoded a transcript of 1452 nucleotides containing a 12 nucleotide AU-rich 5' nontranslated region (NTR) and a 50-nucleotide 3' NTR whose terminus was predicted to fold into a hairpin of moderate stability. An open reading frame initiating from the the 5'-most AUG codon encoded a protein of 463 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 49,860. Expression of the putative FV3 MCP gene in vitro confirmed that it encoded the major capsid protein of FV3 and supported the suggestion that translation initiated at AUG-1. Pairwise amino acid alignments detected a high degree of sequence identity between the FV3 MCP and other iridoviruses. These results indicate that iridoviruses possess an evolutionarily related major capsid protein and provide information useful not only in studies of viral gene expression, but also in characterizing newly isolated iridoviruses.
已确定蛙病毒3（FV3）主要衣壳蛋白（MCP）编码基因的核苷酸序列，并与其他虹彩病毒衣壳基因进行了比较。核苷酸序列和S1核酸酶分析表明，FV3 MCP基因编码一个1452个核苷酸的转录本，包含一个12个核苷酸的富含AU的5'非翻译区（NTR）和一个50个核苷酸的3' NTR，其末端预计会折叠成一个稳定性适中的发夹结构。从最5'端的AUG密码子起始的开放阅读框编码一个463个氨基酸的蛋白质，预测分子量为49,860。推测的FV3 MCP基因在体外的表达证实它编码FV3的主要衣壳蛋白，并支持翻译起始于AUG-1的观点。成对氨基酸比对检测到FV3 MCP与其他虹彩病毒之间具有高度的序列同一性。这些结果表明虹彩病毒拥有进化相关的主要衣壳蛋白，并提供了不仅对病毒基因表达研究有用，而且对鉴定新分离的虹彩病毒也有用的信息。
