Cloning and Sequence of Glycoprotein H Gene of Duck Plague Virus

The glycoprotein H (gH) gene homologue of duck plague virus (DPV) was cloned by degenerate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced. It was located immediately downstream from the thymidine kinase gene (TK). In addition, the 3′-end of the gene homologue to herpesvirus UL21 was located downstream from the gH gene. DPV gH gene open reading frame (ORF) was 2505 bp in length and its primary translation product was a polypeptide of 834 amino acids long. It possessed several characteristics of membrane glycoproteins, including an N-terminal hydrophobic signal sequence, an external domain containing eight putative N-linked glycosylation sites, a C-terminal transmembrane domain, and a charged cytoplasmic tail. Comparison with other herpesvirus revealed identities of 20.2, 25.1, 23.0, 23.0, 26.5 and 26.0% with the gH counterparts of the human herpesvirus virus 1 (HSV1), equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV4), bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV1), pseudorabies virus (PRV), gallid herpesvirus 2 (GHV2) and gallid herpesvirus 3 (GHV3), respectively.