Abstract
1 Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University Station, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, U.S.A.
2 Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, U.K.
3 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Madrid, Spain
and4 Department of Theoretical Biology and Virology, All-Union Research Institute of Molecular Biology, Koltsovo, U.S.S.R.
The complete sequence of the S7 RNA that codes for the major group-specific coat protein, VP7, of African horsesickness virus serotype 4 (AHSV-4) was determined from cDNA analyses and found to be 1179 nucleotides in length. One single open reading frame of 353 codons was observed defining a protein of Mr 38107 with a net charge of -1·5 at neutral pH. Comparison of the AHSV-4 VP7 sequence with that of bluetongue virus serotype 10 revealed an overall similarity of 44%, with the amino- and carboxy-terminal regions exhibiting the greatest levels of homology. In addition, potential secondary structures of the terminal sequences of the S7 RNA segments of AHSV-4 and BTV serotypes 10, 13 and 17 are presented.