title: Comparative sequence analyses of the cognate structural protein VP6 genes of five US bluetongue viruses.
abstract: The S3 segment (the small segment 3), encoding the structural protein, VP6, from the five United States (US) prototype bluetongue virus (BTV) serotypes were amplified by the Clamp-R method and cloned as full-length entities. The complete nucleotide sequence of each cognate gene segment was determined. Each cognate S3 segment of BTV-10, 11, 13 and 17 was 1049 nucleotides long and contained an open reading frame (ORF) capable of encoding a 325-amino acid protein. However, the S3 segment of BTV-2, which also contained 1049 nucleotides, had a longer 5'-non-coding region of 99-nucleotide and contained an ORF capable only of encoding a 301-amino acid protein. Comparative analyses of the predicted amino acid sequences of S3 segments of BTV-2, 10, 11, 13 and 17 revealed that VP6 was unusually high in glycine and contained few aromatic amino acids, but a high concentration of charged amino acids, which is a characteristic of a hydrophilic protein. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that BTV-11, 13 and 17 were more closely related than the other two US BTV serotypes. BTV-2 was the most distantly related.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Program, Utah State University, Logan 84322-5500.
authors.forename: G Y
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Chiou
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D001483:Base Sequence; D001820:Bluetongue virus / Q000235:genetics*; D002213:Capsid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral; C061332:VP6 protein, Rotavirus