SEQUENCE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ADENOVIRUS-31 FIBER AND COMPARISON WITH SEROTYPES OF SUBGENERA A TO F

The amino acid sequence of the adenovirus type 31 (subgenus A) fibre polypeptide was deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the fibre gene. The analysed peptide sequence showed an organization consistent with the structural domains described for other adenoviruses: an amino-terminal tail region, an intervening shaft region and a carboxy-terminal knob. The AV31 fibre shaft displayed 20 repeats of the 15-amino-acid segments in the shaft domain, which agreed with the reported length of the fibre. The predicted AV31 fibre polypeptide sequence was compared to fibre polypeptides of serotypes representing subgenera A to F. As expected, AV31 and AV12, both belonging to subgenus A, showed the highest overall homology (75.4%). When comparing the AV31 fibre to the fibre polypeptides of subgenera B to F, AV31 and AV41 (subgenus F) shared the highest overall homology (35.3%), followed by AV40 (34.8%). The lowest overall homology (20.3%) was found for the AV31 and AV3 fibres (subgenus B). From the data presented, it could be suggested that AV31 is more closely related to the enteric viruses of subgenus F than to the other adenoviruses analysed. Comparing the fibre polypeptides of 14 adenovirus serotypes, 10 conserved amino acid sequences were detected, 5 of which were in the knob region. Since the fibre knob interacts with the host cell during infection, these conserved amino acids might be important for virus attachment. The gastroenteritis-causing adenoviruses AV40 and AV41 shared 3 additional conserved amino acid residues with AV31 and AV12 in the knob region.