title: Physical and genomic characteristics identify chicken proventricular necrosis virus (R11/3 virus) as a novel birnavirus.
abstract: Chicken proventricular necrosis virus (CPNV), isolate R11/3, previously was isolated from transmissible viral proventriculitis-affected chickens and was determined to be the likely etiology of this disease. CPNV was identified as a birnavirus on the basis of virion size and morphology (icosahedral, approximately 75 nm in diameter, nonenveloped); buoyant density in cesium chloride (1.32 g/ml); a genome comprising bisegmented, double-stranded RNA (approximately 3.8 and 3.4 kilobase pairs); and nucleotide sequence analyses. Nucleotide sequencing of CPNV RNA, segment B, identified a single large open reading frame that encodes a 903-amino acid protein. The 903-amino acid protein was identified as the putative VP1, the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), on the basis of sequence homologies with other birnavirus VP1 proteins. The CPNV VP1 possessed the unique permuted RdRp sequence motif arrangement characteristic of birnaviruses; however, phylogenetic analyses based on VP1 demonstrated that CPNV is deeply divergent from other birnaviruses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA. jim_guy@ncsu.edu
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Guy
authors.forename: A Melissa A
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: Frederick J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Fuller
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018059:Birnaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D018175:Birnaviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002645:Chickens; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005814:Genes, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral