CHICKEN ROTAVIRUS CH-1 SHOWS A 2ND TYPE OF AVIAN VP6 GENE

VP6 protein from chicken rotavirus Ch-1 showed more than 13% amino aci d differences in comparison with pigeon and turkey VP6 sequences, This difference is greater than that observed between subgroup I and II ma mmalian rotavirus VP6 sequences. Phylogenetic tree analysis demonstrat ed that RV Ch-1 VP6 is not a link between avian and mammalian VP6 sequ ences. RV Ch-1 showed variant aa in 17 positions which were otherwise absolutely conserved in mammalian and avian group A RVs. The 17 replac ements were scattered through the entire VP6 sequence except the C-ter minal part implicated in the assembly of subviral particles, In RV Ch- 1 the proline residue 309, reported to be critical for the trimerizati on of VP6, was replaced by leucine, but VP6 trimers were still observe d. The sequence and hydrophilicity analysis of avian RV VP6 do not exp lain the anomalous electrophoretic migration behavior of avian VP6 pro teins.