Homologous recombination is a dominant force in evolution and results in genetic mosaics. To detect evidence of recombination events and assess the biological significance of genetic mosaics, genome sequences for various viral populations of reasonably large size are now available in the GenBank. We studied a multi-functional viral gene, the adeno-associated virus (AAV) cap gene, which codes fo...

Rotavirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase VP1 catalyzes RNA synthesis within a subviral particle. This activity depends on core shell protein VP2. A conserved sequence at the 3' end of plus-strand RNA templates is important for polymerase association and genome replication. We have determined the structure of VP1 at 2.9 A resolution, as apoenzyme and in complex with RNA. The cage-like enzyme is si...

A complex of the polyomavirus internal protein VP2/VP3 with the pentameric major capsid protein VP1 has been prepared by co-expression in Escherichia coli. A C-terminal segment of VP2/VP3 is required for tight association, and a crystal structure of this segment, complexed with a VP1 pentamer, has been determined at 2.2 A resolution. The structure shows specific contacts between a single copy o...

Duck hepatitis virus types 1 (DHV-1) JX strain was isolated from infected ducklings with clinical symptoms from Hubei province of China. These isolated strains showed high pathogenicity to both duck embryo and duckling in Duck embryo neutralization assay and animal infection experiment. The complete genome of JX strain was sequenced. Comparative genome analysis with other available strains in G...

Recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors have been widely used in human gene therapy. One major impediment to its broad application is the inability to produce high-quality vectors in mass quantity. Here, an efficient and scalable suspension cell culture system for the production of rAAV vectors is described. In this system, the AAV trans factors, Rep78, Rep52, VP1, VP2, and VP3, were ...

In immunocompromised individuals, JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) may mutate and gain access to the central nervous system resulting in progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), an often fatal opportunistic infection for which no treatments are currently available. Despite recent progress, the contribution of JCPyV-specific humoral immunity to controlling asymptomatic infection throughout life ...

The amounts of simian virus 40 structural polypeptides Vp1, Vp2, and Vp3 in different subcellular fractions at various times after lytic infection were determined by a quantitative immunoblotting procedure. Simian virus 40-infected cells were lysed with a buffer containing Nonidet P-40 to yield a soluble fraction. The Nonidet P-40-insoluble fraction was further fractionated in the presence of d...

In this study, the capsid proteins of four major serotypes of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) were assessed as the vaccine candidates. Different protein sequences regarding FMDV capsid of O, A, Asia 1 and C type were identified from NCBI Genome Database and UniprotKB. Phylogenetic tree of the four serotypes was developed using ClustalW software. HMMTOP, RANKPEP, Swiss-Model and Vaxign softw...

Human enterovirus B106 (EV-B106) is a recently identified member of enterovirus species B. In this study, we report the complete genomic characterization of an EV-B106 strain (148/YN/CHN/12) isolated from an acute flaccid paralysis patient in Yunnan Province, China. The new strain had 79.2-81.3% nucleotide and 89.1-94.8% amino acid similarity in the VP1 region with the other two EV-B106 strains...

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is the first polyomavirus clearly associated with a human cancer, i.e. the Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Polyomaviruses are small naked DNA viruses that induce a robust polyclonal antibody response against the major capsid protein (VP1). However, the polyomavirus VP1 capsid protein epitopes have not been identified to date. The aim of this study was to identify t...