1998 Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 381-385
Analysis of the molecular properties of fusion (F) proteins of field isolates of canine distemper virus (CDV) by immunoprecipitation analysis revealed an identical molecular mass of F protein of 3 field isolates as well as the Onderstepoort laboratory strain. Sequencing showed that the F gene of a field isolate (the Yanaka strain) shared 90.1% and 95.7% identities with the Onderstepoort strain at nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively. All of the 13 cysteine residues and 4 potential asparagine-linked glycosylation sites were completely conserved amongst these strains. These results indicate that the F proteins is much less heterogeneous than that observed in the hemagglutinin proteins of CDV.