CHARACTERIZATION OF MAPUERA-VIRUS - STRUCTURE, PROTEINS AND NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE GENE ENCODING THE NUCLEOCAPSID PROTEIN

The molecular biology of Mapuera virus was studied at both the protein and nucleic acid levels. Seven virus-encoded proteins were detected i n infected Vero cells. The sizes and characteristics of each of the pr oteins determined from various radiolabelling experiments allowed prel iminary identification of the proteins as the large (L; 190 kDa), haem agglutinin neuraminidase (HN; 74 kDa), nucleocapsid (N; 66 kDa), fusio n (F-0; 63 kDa), phosphoprotein (P; 49 kDa), matrix (M; 43 kDa) and no n-structural (V; 35 kDa) proteins. Western blot analysis showed that t he HN, N and P proteins were major antigens recognized in the mouse. A cDNA library of total virus-infected cellular mRNA was created and sc reening of the library resulted in the detection of cDNA sequences rep resenting the N mRNA transcript of Mapuera virus. The N mRNA sequence determined from the clones was 1731 nt in length and contained an ORF that encoded 537 amino acids, the complete 3' untranslated region and part of the 5' non-coding region. The calculated M(r) of the N protein was 59 kDa, which is close to the 66 kDa protein observed by SDS-PAGE .