HYDROPATHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ADENOVIRUS HEXONS

The complete nucleotide sequence and the predicted amino acid sequence of the adenovirus type 7 hexon gene were determined. The hydropathy o f the hexon proteins from human adenovirus types 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 16 , 40, 41, and 48, bovine adenovirus type 3, murine adenovirus type I, and avian adenovirus types I and 10 was analysed. The presence of puri nes and pyrimidines in the second position of the codons was correlate d to hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, respectively. Comparison of th e hydrophilicity plots of eight herons showed seven hypervariable regi ons to be distributed on the surface. A large portion of the hypervari able regions manifests hydrophilicity. The strength of the surface cha rge accumulated on the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions correlated to the tissue tropism of the different adenovirus types. Analysis of c odon usage for adenovirus herons showed that among synonymous codons t hose with cytidine in the third position were preferably used to a gre at extent. Analysis of the nucleotide and amino acid sequence pair dis tances and the phylogenetic tree of 14 hexon proteins showed members o f subgenera B, D and E to be closely related, especially Ad4 and Ad16, and subgenus A to be closely related to subgenus F.