Characterization of the Surface Proteins of the Anatid herpesvirus

Abstract

A plaque purified isolate, Anatid herpesvirus (AHV-ppc3) of the Holland strain of AHV (American Type Culture Collection No. VR684) was propagated in chicken embryo fibroblasts and purified by differential and buoyant density sedimentation through thtough sucrose gradients. A total of 17 putative virus proteins were consistently identified in both polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and radioautogram. Coomassie blue staining techniques identified 10 virus bands. The remaining 7 virus proteins were identified using radioautography. AHV polypeptides identified ranged from 6 to 199 Kd. AHV contains major polypeptides with molecular weights of 173, 144, 118, 105, and 76.3 Kd. In addition, AHV possess minor polypeptide bands with molecular weights of 195, 183, 92.8, 81.4, 55.7, 52.0, 42.2, 32.6, 17.1, 7.91, and 6.16 Kd. It has been demonstrated, in this study, that the Anatid herpesvirus putative surface proteins are very similar in molecular weights to those reported for other herpesviruses.