title: Evaluation of the genetic diversity of avian paramyxovirus type 4.
abstract: Avian paramyxoviruses (APMVs) belong to the genus Avulavirus in the family Paramyxoviridae and include at least nine serotypes, APMV-1 to -9, as well as two additional provisional serotypes. Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which comprises APMV-1, is the most extensively studied APMV because it is an important poultry pathogen. A moderate level of antigenic and genetic diversity is recognized for APMV-1 isolates, but our knowledge of the antigenic and genetic diversity of the other APMV serotypes is limited. APMV-4 is frequently isolated from waterfowl around the world. To date complete genome sequences of APMV-4 are available for only strains, which were isolated from ducks in Hong Kong, Korea and Belgium over a period of 37 years. We have carried out genome sequencing from the nucleocapsid (N) gene-end signal to the polymerase (L) gene-start signal of five APMV-4 strains recently isolated from Italy. Each of the eight APMV-4 strains has the same F protein cleavage site, DIQPR↓F. They also share a high level of nucleotide and amino acid sequence identity: for example, the F and HN glycoproteins have greater than 97% sequence identity between the various strains. Thus, comparison of these eight strains of APMV-4 did not provide evidence of substantial diversity, in contrast to similar studies with APMV-2, -3, and -6, in which the F and HN glycoproteins exhibited up to 20-30% amino acid sequence variation within a subgroup. Reciprocal cross-HI assay using post infection chicken sera also failed to detect significant antigenic variation among the available APMV-4 strains.
authors.affiliation: Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
authors.forename: Baibaswata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.forename: Shreeraj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.forename: Anandan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paldurai
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Nardi
authors.forename: Calogero
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Terregino
authors.forename: Peter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Siba K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Samal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018109:Avulavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D023061:Gene Order; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012703:Serotyping; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010750:Phosphoproteins; D014764:Viral Proteins