Marek's disease in turkeys. II. Characterization of the viral glycoprotein B gene and antigen of a turkey strain of Marek's disease virus

• Published in: Avian diseases Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 322 - 333
• Main Authors: Davidson, I, Malkinson, M, Weisman, Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.04.2002
• Subjects: amino acid sequences; Animals; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antibodies, Viral - immunology; Antigens, Viral - genetics; Antigens, Viral - immunology; Base Sequence; Chickens; DNA, Viral - chemistry; Epitopes - analysis; Gene Amplification; genes; glycoproteins; Herpesvirus 2, Gallid - genetics; Herpesvirus 2, Gallid - immunology; hosts; immunoblotting; Mardivirus; Marek disease; Marek Disease - virology; Molecular Sequence Data; monoclonal antibodies; nucleotide sequences; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; Sequence Alignment - veterinary; Turkeys; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Viral Envelope Proteins - immunology; viral proteins
• ISSN: 0005-2086; 1938-4351
• DOI: 10.1637/0005-2086(2002)046[0322:MSDITI]2.0.CO;2

Marek's disease virus (MDV) causes immunosuppression and tumors in chickens. As sporadic cases of Marek's disease (MD) were recorded in turkeys, the antigenic and genomic characteristics of the MDV glycoprotein B (gB) gene and antigen of turkeys were compared to the chicken MDV gB. The whole chicken and turkey gB genes were sequenced and found identical. By immunoblotting of infected-cell culture lysates using chicken convalescent and gB monoclonal antibodies, the antigenic epitopes of the chicken and turkey viruses were found to differ. The turkey MDV had a unique epitope, compared to the chicken MDV and compared with our previous findings. While the chicken MDV had two epitope types, heat-labile but dithiothreitol (DTT)-stable and heat-stable but DTT-labile, the turkey MDV gB epitope is both heat and DTT-labile.