Genetic and phylogenetic analysis of the outer-coat proteins VP2 and VP5 of epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV): Comparison of genetic and serological data to characterise the EHDV serogroup

The outer-coat proteins, VP2 and VP5, of epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) are important for host cell binding during the initiation of infection. They are also known to determine virus serotype. This study presents a complete genetic and phylogenetic analysis of these proteins (and the genes that code for them) to allow comparison of the selective pressures acting on each and the correlation of genetic sequence data with serotype. Accession numbers, gene and protein sizes, ORF positions, G+C contents, terminal hexanucleotides, start and stop codons and phylogenetic relationships are all presented. The results show that VP2 is highly variable, is under great pressure to adapt and can be correlated with serotype. While also variable, VP5 appears to be under less adaptive pressure than VP2 but still shows some correlation with serotype. Seven serotypes of EHDV have been defined in this study, although the results do show that some serotypes are extremely closely related—and highlight the benefit of using both molecular and serologic analyses. Analysis of the terminal hexanucleotides showed that the 5′ terminus is under greater purifying selection than the 3′. Evidence is also presented that both segments 2 and 6 (coding for VP2 and VP5 respectively) have grown via gene duplication and subsequent mutation.