The complete nucleotide sequence of African horsesickness virus serotype 4 (vaccine strain) segment 4, which encodes the minor core protein VP4

Abstract The complete sequence of RNA segment 4 of African horsesickness virus serotype 4 (AHSV-4) vaccine strain was determined from the full-length cDNA clone inserted into pBR322. The RNA is 1978 bp long ( M r 1.27 × 10 6 ) and contains an open reading frame encoding a protein of 642 amino acids ( M r 75826) with a net charge of +10 at neutral pH. The 5' and 3' termini of AHSV-4 segment 4, 5'GTTTAT… and …CCTTAC3', were different from orbivirus characteristic terminal sequences, being 5'GTTAAA… and …ACTTAC3'. A comparison of the sequence of AHSV-4 segment 4 with that of bluetongue virus (BTV) serotype 10 revealed 55.4% nucleotide similarity and 48.5% amino acid similarity. In addition, Northern blot hybridization showed that the full-length AHSV-4 segment 4 cDNA cross-hybridized well with the corresponding genes of serotype 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 but slightly with serotype 5, 6 and 8 of attenuated AHSV.