Comparison of glycoprotein B (gB) variants of the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) isolated from Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
The recently described elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHV) have been associated with the deaths of numerous captive elephants. A proposed tool for the detection of EEHV infection in elephants is the PCR-based screening for EEHV-DNA in whole blood samples. Unfortunately, this detection method has only been successful in post-mortem analyses or in animals already displaying clinical signs of EEHV disease, thus rendering this method unsuitable for identification of carrier elephants. Here, we focus on glycoprotein B (gB) for serologic assay development, since gB is an envelope protein known to induce a neutralising antibody response in other herpesvirus infections. We sequenced the entire gB gene from five Asian elephants with EEHV, representing four different gB variants. Computer-aided methods were used to predict functionally important regions within EEHVgB. An extra-cytoplasmic region of 153 amino acids was predicted to be under positive selection and may potentially contain antigenic determinants that will be useful for future serologic assay development.
Fickel
J
J
Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Strasse 17, D-10315 Berlin, Germany. fickel@izw-berlin.de
Lieckfeldt
D
D
Richman
L K
LK
Streich
W J
WJ
Hildebrandt
T B
TB
Pitra
C
C
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004606:Elephants / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006023:Glycoproteins; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins