Strong sequence conservation of African swine fever virus p72 protein provides the molecular basis for its antigenic stability.
The major capsid protein p72 of African swine fever virus (ASFV) has long been considered an important immunodominant antigen for serologic diagnosis. Here we describe the cloning and sequence analysis of two p72-coding genes from ASFV strains Uganda (UGA) and Dominican Republic-2 (DR2). Sequence comparison of these genes, together with those from two other ASFV strains (BA71V and E70), demonstrated that the p72 proteins are highly conserved (97.8% to 100% amino acid sequence identity) in strains isolated from different parts of the world. These results support previous observations indicating that p72 is antigenically stable, and provide a useful molecular basis for further development of ASFV serologic tests using this important antigenic molecule.
Yu
M
M
CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Morrissy
C J
CJ
Westbury
H A
HA
D000357:African Swine Fever / Q000175:diagnosis; D000358:African Swine Fever Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D001483:Base Sequence; D002213:Capsid / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004293:Dominican Republic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012698:Serologic Tests; D013552:Swine; D014454:Uganda
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C063745:capsid protein p72, African swine fever virus