RECOMBINANT FIBER PROTEINS OF HUMAN ADENOVIRUSES AD9, AD15 AND AD19 -LOCALIZATION OF THE HEMAGGLUTINATION PROPERTIES AND THE TYPE-SPECIFICDETERMINANT

The adenovirus fibre carries the type-specific gamma determinant the e xistence of which was suggested by haemagglutination inhibition tests. Furthermore, the fibre is thought to be responsible for the agglutina tion of monkey, rat and human erythrocytes. In order to verify that th e haemagglutination properties and the type-specific gamma determinant are located on the fibre knob domain, several recombinant fibre prote ins of subgenus D adenoviruses were constructed, expressed in HeLa cel ls and tested in haemagglutination and haemagglutination inhibition te sts. Our data showed that the epitopes responsible for the interaction with erythrocytes and the gamma determinant are located on the fibre knob domain.