Sequencing of the p74 gene of Spodoptera litura multinucleocapcid polyhedrosis virus

The p74 gene of SpltNPV was located at EcoRI-4.4kb, XhoI-4.9kb and BamHI-3.0kb fragments by Southern blotting with AcMNPV-derived probe. After cloning of the three fragments, restriction enzyme analysis was used to construct their restriction map. A region of 2 545 bp including p74 gene of SpltNPV was sequenced. The open reading frame of SpltNPV p74 gene was decided to be 1 974 bp long, which codes 658 amino acids. Comparison of the homology with other baculovirus p74 genes shows that SpltNPV p74 is 64% and 63% identical to that of AcMNPV and CfMNPV at the amino acid level.