Nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the 3′ region of glycoprotein C gene of South American bovine herpesviruses 1 and 5

We herein describe a molecular analysis based on the 3′ region of the glycoprotein C gene of 45 bovine herpesvirus (BoHV) isolates from Brazil (n = 41), Uruguay (n = 2) and Argentina (n = 2). Nucleotide (nt) sequencing and alignment of 333 nt revealed levels of similarity ranging from 99.1% to 100% among BoHV-1 sequences (n = 12); 96.2–100% among BoHV-5 sequences (n = 32); and 77.7–90.3% between BoHV-1 and BoHV-5 sequences. The phylogenetic tree reconstruction provided a clear distinction between BoHV-1 and BoHV-5, and BoHV-1 into subtypes BoHV-1.1 and BoHV-1.2. The isolate SV 453/93 (BoHV-1 associated with genital disease) could not be included within BoHV-1 subtypes since it presented a markedly distinct nt and amino acid (aa) deduced sequences. A transmembrane domain of 24 aa and the putative cytoplasmic tail of 8 aa were identified and mapped. These results indicate that this genome region represents a suitable target for phylogenetic subgrouping of BoHV-1 and BoHV-5 isolates and, perhaps, for understanding evolutionary relationships.