S. Maree et al., EXPRESSION OF THE MAJOR CORE STRUCTURAL PROTEINS VP3 AND VP7 OF AFRICAN HORSE SICKNESS VIRUS, AND PRODUCTION OF CORE-LIKE PARTICLES, Archives of virology, 1998, pp. 203-209
The genome segments encoding the seven structural proteins of African
horse sickness virus (AHSV), including the largest coding for VP1, wer
e cloned and sequenced. Analysis of the VP1 sequence supports the puta
tive, identity of this protein as an RNA polymerase. The genes encodin
g the two major core proteins, VP3 and VP7, were also cloned and expre
ssed by both in vitro translation and by means of recombinant baculovi
ruses. Go-infection of insect cells with VP3 and VP7 recombinant bacul
oviruses resulted in the intracellular formation of multimeric particl
es with a diameter of 72 nm, which structurally resembled authentic AH
SV cores (core like particles: CLP). The complete genome of AHSV has n
ow been cloned and sequenced.