title: Unclassified poxvirus: characterization and physical mapping of Cotia virus DNA and location of a sequence capable of encoding a thymidine kinase.
abstract: DNA from Cotia virus, an unclassified poxvirus, was mapped by overlapping fragment analysis using the restriction endonucleases HindIII, PstI, BamHI, XhoI, SalI, and SmaI. The linear genome was 177 kbp in length and possessed inverted terminal repeats and cross-links. A Cotia virus thymidine kinase (TK) gene was detected and mapped to about 74 kbp from the left end of the genome using degenerate oligonucleotide probes. Nucleotide sequencing of the TK gene revealed an open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a peptide of 178 amino acids. An A/T-rich sequence, TAA AAA TGA ATA AATA, and a transcription termination signal, TTTTTGT, were revealed upstream and just downstream of the ORF, respectively, consistent with the characteristic features of an early poxvirus gene. Cotia virus resembles swinepox virus based on the restriction profiles generated by endonucleases and shares amino acid sequence similarity with orthopox, leporipox, Yaba, and fowlpox viruses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology II, National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morikawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D011212:Poxviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D013937:Thymidine Kinase