3 AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS GENES ENCODING PROTEINS WITH HOMOLOGY TO PUTATIVE HELICASES OF VACCINIA VIRUS

Sequence analysis of the SalI g, h, i and j restriction fragments of t he African swine fever virus (ASFV) genome from the virulent isolate M alawi (LIL20/1) identified three open reading frames (ORFs) encoding p redicted proteins of 125.0K (g10L), 80.4K (j10L) and 58.0K (j11L) whic h showed homology to members of the DNA and RNA helicase superfamily. ORF j10L was related to protein 4 of the Kluyveromyces lactis killer p lasmid pKG12 and to two putative helicases, D6R and D11L, of vaccinia virus. ORF g10L was most closely related to ASFV j10L and to vaccinia virus D11L. ORF j11L was homologous to A18R, a third putative helicase of vaccinia virus. The possible functions of these genes in the repli cation of ASFV are discussed and the evolutionary implications are con sidered.