ADELAIDE-RIVER-VIRUS NUCLEOPROTEIN GENE - ANALYSIS OF PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS OF EPHEMEROVIRUSES AND OTHER RHABDOVIRUSES

The nucleotide sequence of the Adelaide River virus (ARV) genome was d etermined from the 3' terminus to the end of the nucleoprotein (N) gen e. The 3' leader sequence comprises 50 nucleotides and shares a common terminal trinucleotide (3' UGC-), a conserved U-rich domain and a var iable AU-rich domain with other animal rhabdoviruses. The N gene compr ises 1355 nucleotides from the transcription start sequence (AACAGG) t o the poly(A) sequence [CATG(A)(7)] and encodes a polypeptide of 429 a mino acids. The N protein has a calculated molecular mass of 49429 Da and a pI of 5.4 and, like the bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV) N pr otein, features a highly acidic C-terminal domain. Analysis of amino a cid sequence relationships between all available rhabdovirus N protein s indicated that ARV and BEFV are closely related viruses (48.3 % simi larity) which share higher sequence similarity to vesiculoviruses than to lyssaviruses. Phylogenetic trees based on a multiple sequence alig nment of all available rhabdovirus N protein sequences demonstrated cl ustering of viruses according to genome organization, host range and e stablished taxonomic relationships.