Sequence analysis of the nucleocapsid and phosphoprotein genes of avian pneumoviruses circulating in the US.
Avian pneumovirus (APV) has recently been described as the cause of a new respiratory syndrome in turkey flocks in the United States. We here describe the complete sequence of the nucleocapsid (N) and phosphoprotein (P) genes of this emerging APV (APV/US). Our results show 59 and 61% nucleotide sequence identity of the APV/US N gene with N genes of previously described European APV subgroups A and B, respectively. The P gene of APV/US showed only 53% nucleotide sequence identity with the ortholog from APV subgroup A. Phylogenetic analyses of both N and P genes clearly demonstrate that the APV/US lineage is evolutionarily related but distinct from European APVs. Moreover, sequence analysis of the N and P genes from two laboratory adapted isolates of APV/US (APV/MN-1a and APV/MN-1b) and from ten clinical samples from APV-infected turkeys suggests only modest level of amino acid divergence in the N (0-0.3%) and P (0-1.4%) proteins. Taken together, the results of this study indicate support that APV/US represents a new subgroup (subgroup C) of APV and show that there is limited heterogeneity in the N and P genes of APV/US isolates.
Dar
A M
AM
Department of Veterinary PathoBiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
Munir
S
S
Goyal
S M
SM
Abrahamsen
M S
MS
Kapur
V
V
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000235:genetics*; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018111:Pneumovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D018186:Pneumovirus Infections / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014422:Turkeys / Q000821:virology; D014481:United States; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D010750:Phosphoproteins; D014764:Viral Proteins