Fusion protein gene nucleotide sequence similarities, shared antigenic sites and phylogenetic analysis suggest that phocid distemper virus 2 and canine distemper virus belong to the same virus entity.

• Main Authors: Visser, I.K.G. (Ilona), Heijden, R.W.J. (Roger) van der, Bildt, M.W.G. (Marco) van de, Kenter, M.J.H. (Marcel), Örvell, C., Osterhaus, A.D.M.E. (Albert)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 1993
• Subjects: *Genes; Viral; *Phylogeny; 0 (Codon); 0 (DNA; Viral); 0 (RNA; Messenger); 0 (Viral Fusion Proteins); 149346-80-5 (F protein; Phocine distemper virus); Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Codon/genetics; DNA; Viral/genetics; Distemper Virus; Canine/*genetics; Measles virus/*genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Molecular Weight; Paramyxoviridae/*genetics/isolation & purification; RNA; Messenger/genetics; Seals; Sequence Homology; Amino Acid; Nucleic Acid; Viral Fusion Proteins/biosynthesis/*genetics/isolation & purification; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: http://repub.eur.nl/pub/3480

Nucleotide sequencing of the fusion protein (F) gene of phocid distemper virus-2 (PDV-2), recently isolated from Baikal seals (Phoca sibirica), revealed an open reading frame (nucleotides 84 to 2075) with two potential in-frame ATG translation initiation codons. We suggest that the second in-frame ATG triplet at positions 264 to 266 initiates the translation, resulting in a protein of 537 amino acid residues with a calculated M(r) of 63,035. The putative F1/F2 cleavage site, located approximately 100 amino acid residues from the N terminus, is identical to those of the F proteins of phocid distemper virus-1 (PDV-1) isolated from European harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and of canine distemper virus (CDV). A full scale comparison of morbillivirus F genes reveals that the conserved F0 extracellular protein-encoding region contains a large number of non-expressed mutations, suggesting that this part of the protein is under strong functional constraints. Phylogenetic analysis of morbillivirus F gene nucleotide sequences revealed a closer evolutionary relationship b