Characterisation of the putative nucleoprotein gene of infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV)

A gene encoding the putative nucleoprotein (NP) of infectious salmon anaemi a virus (ISAV), a commercially important salmonid Orthomyxovirus, has been identified. cDNA obtained from a subtractive cDNA library bound specificall y to RNA extracted from ISAV-infected SHK-1 cell cultures. The 5' and 3' en ds of the gene were amplified using RACE PCR and a full length open reading frame (ORF) of 1851 nt identified encoding a predicted protein of 616 amin o acids. No significant homology of this sequence with any other orthomyxov irus nucleoprotein was identifiable using BLAST or FASTA-based database sea rches. The ISAV-protein was however identified as a nucleoprotein based on its characteristic amino-acid composition. Furthermore the conserved sequen ce 5' GCAAAGA 3' was identified preceding the ORF, as has been identified i n all other ISAV-genes characterised to date. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V . All rights reserved.