Abstract
Phylogenetic analysis of three genes of Penguinpox virus, a novel Avipoxvirus isolated from African penguins, reveals its relationship to other poxviruses. The genes corresponding to Vaccinia virus G8R (VLTF-1), A3L (P4b) and H3L were sequenced and phylogenetic trees (Neighbour-Joining and UPGMA) constructed from MUSCLE nucleotide and amino acid alignments of the equivalent sequences from several different poxviruses. Based on this analysis, PEPV was confirmed to belong to the genus Avipoxvirus, specifically, clade A, subclade A2 and to be most closely related to Turkeypox virus (TKPV), Ostrichpox virus (OSPV)and Pigeonpox virus (PGPV).
Highlights
Interest in the avipoxviruses, notably Fowlpox virus (FWPV) and Canarypox virus (CNPV) has increased due to their successful use as vaccines on commercial flocks and their extensive use and testing as vaccine vectors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Two additional genes, which are less highly conserved (P4b (VACV A3L; fpv167 locus) and the virion envelope protein p35 (VACV H3L; fpv140 locus)) were selected for analysis in order to determine the relationship of PEPV to other avipoxviruses previously analysed at these loci [14]
The VLTF-1 gene encodes a late transcription factor, which is highly conserved amongst all poxviruses and is the most conserved protein between FWPV and CNPV with 95% amino acid identity [10]
Summary
Notably Fowlpox virus (FWPV) and Canarypox virus (CNPV) has increased due to their successful use as vaccines on commercial flocks and their extensive use and testing as vaccine vectors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] The genomes of both FWPV and CNPV have been sequenced and comparison reveals a high level of divergence with significant differences between orthologous ORFs and the terminal, variable genomic regions [9,10]. Analysis of the thymidine kinase gene showed only 64% amino acid identity between FWPV and CNPV compared to 97% amino acid identity amongst the orthopoxviruses and 84% within the Leporipoxvirus genus [11] This level of divergence is commonly seen between different Chordopoxvirus genera suggesting that the species within the Avipoxvirus genus are highly divergent. Reported was the fact that PEPV transcriptases could recognize the Vaccinia virus (VACV) derived late promoter P11 linked to the β-galactosidase reporter gene, resulting in transient gene expression
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