Analysis of EpapGV gp37 gene reveals a close relationship between granulovirus and entomopoxvirus

• Published in: Virus genes Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 610 - 613
• Main Authors: Salvador, Ricardo, Ferrelli, M. Leticia, Berretta, Marcelo F, Mitsuhashi, Wataru, Biedma, Marina E, Romanowski, Víctor, Sciocco-Cap, Alicia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer-Verlag 01.12.2012; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; antiserum; bacteria; Base Sequence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cydia pomonella granulovirus; Entomopoxvirinae - classification; Entomopoxvirinae - genetics; Entomopoxvirinae - immunology; Entomopoxvirinae - pathogenicity; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; genes; Genes, Viral; Glycosylation; Granulovirus - classification; Granulovirus - genetics; Granulovirus - immunology; Granulovirus - pathogenicity; Immune Sera - immunology; Lepidoptera - virology; Medical Microbiology; Open Reading Frames; Phylogeny; Plant Sciences; sequence analysis; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Viral Envelope Proteins - immunology; Viral Proteins - genetics; Viral Proteins - immunology; Virology; Granulovirus; Entomopoxvirus; GP37; Baculovirus; EpapGV
• ISSN: 0920-8569; 1572-994X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11262-012-0800-3

The Epinotia aporema Granulovirus GP37 protein gene has been identified, located, and sequenced. This gene was similar to other baculovirus gp37, to entomopoxvirus fusolin gene, and to the chitin-binding protein gene of bacteria. Sequence analysis indicated that the open reading frame is 669 bp long (the smallest gp37 sequenced at present) and encodes a predicted 222-amino acid protein. This protein is glycosylated and specifically recognized by an entomopoxvirus fusolin antiserum. The pairwise comparison of EpapGV gp37 gene product with all the baculovirus sequences in GenBank yields high similarity values ranging from 45 to 63 % with Cydia pomonella Granulovirus gp37 being the most closely related. The phylogenetic analysis interestingly grouped the granuloviruses in a cluster more closely related to entomopoxviruses than to nucleopolyhedroviruses, suggesting a possible horizontal transfer event between the granulovirus group and the entomopoxvirus group.