EPITOPES OF GLYCOPROTEIN-G OF EQUINE HERPESVIRUS-4 AND HERPESVIRUS-1 LOCATED NEAR THE C-TERMINI ELICIT TYPE-SPECIFIC ANTIBODY-RESPONSES IN THE NATURAL HOST

Abstract

Specific serological diagnosis of equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV4; equine rhinopneumonitis virus) and EHV1 (equine abortion virus) hitherto has not been possible because of extensive antigenic cross-reactivity between these two closely related but distinct viruses. Recently, we identified EHV4 glycoprotein G (gG) and characterized it as a type-specific, secreted glycoprotein (B. S. Crabb, H. S. Nagesha, and M. J. Studdert, Virology 190:143-154, 1992). This paper shows that EHV1 gG also possesses type-specific epitopes and describes the localization of strong, type-specific epitopes to the apparently corresponding and highly variable regions comprising amino acids 287 to 382 of EHV4 gG and 288 to ..