MULTIGENE FAMILIES IN AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS - FAMILY-505

Sequencing of restriction fragment EcoRI A-SalI C of African swine fev er virus has revealed the existence of a multigene family, designated family 505 because of the average number of amino acids in the protein s, composed of seven homologous and tandemly arranged genes. All the g enes of family 505 are expressed during infection. Primer extension an alysis showed that transcription is initiated a short distance (3 to 6 2 nucleotides) from the start codon of the corresponding open reading frame. The proteins of family 505 showed similarity to those of family 360 from African swine fever virus. In particular, a striking conserv ation of three regions at the amino terminus of the polypeptides was o bserved.