THE NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF ASININE HERPESVIRUS-3 GLYCOPROTEIN-G INDICATES THAT THE DONKEY VIRUS IS CLOSELY-RELATED TO EQUINE HERPESVIRUS-1

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence of the glycoprotein G (gG) homologue of asinine herpesvirus 3 (AHV3), a respiratory alphaherpesvirus of donkeys, was determined. The AHV3 gG gene consists of 1233 base pairs (bp) and codes for a predicted protein of 411 amino acids. This is identical in size to the equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1) gG gene and 6 amino acids longer than the equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV4) gG gene. The predicted amino acid sequence of AHV3 gG has characteristics of a class 1 membrane protein. The amino acid sequence of AHV3 gG shows 92% and 60% identity to EHV1 gG and EHV4 gG respectively. Two regions within the gG amino acid sequences of EHV1 and EHV4 were previously defined, an N-terminal const..