A GENE ENCODING A HIGHLY EXPRESSED SPINDLE BODY PROTEIN OF HELIOTHIS-ARMIGERA ENTOMOPOXVIRUS

The gene encoding the most abundant protein of purified preparations of Heliothis armigera entomopoxvirus (HaEPV) has been cloned and sequenced. The gene sequence encodes a 40.1K polypeptide with a putative N-terminal 20 amino acid leader peptide, and a single potential N-glycosylation site. Analysis of the protein, which has an apparent M(r) of 50K on polyacrylamide gels, confirmed post-translational loss of the leader peptide, but showed no evidence of glycosylation. The protein is related to others previously described from Choristoneura biennis EPV (63 % identity) and Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (42 % identity). Polyclonal antiserum raised against a bacterial fusion protein containing the majority of the HaEPV protein specifically labelled HaEPV spindle bodies; confocal laser scanning microscopy suggests that the protein is distributed throughout those viral structures.