Molecular Characterization Analysis of Newly identified Duck Enteritis Virus UL55 Gene

The focus of this paper is on the newly identified UL55 gene of DEV in our laboratory.Available bioinformatic tools were used to describe its molecular characteristics. A identified nucleotide sequence about 561bp of DEV UL55,consisting a complete ORF, was deduced to encode a protein with 186 amino acids.The 20.7981 kDa protein whose singnal peptide and transmembrane region are both absent. Codon usage analysis shows the gene could be well expressed in Escherichia BL21. The putative protein is hydrophilic on the whole,its antigen epitope centralizes at the Extended strand (Ee) and Random coil (Cc) regions as well as the corresponding hydrophilic regions.It was predicted to be a nucleoprotein, which is probably invovled in viron entry,assembly,egress,maturation and release as its homologous.However, UL55 protein just plays an accessory role. Phylogenetic tree based on amino acids and its reference herpesvirus reaveals that there is a close relationship between DEV and Mardivirus genus.However, DEV is clustered within a monophyletic Glade among others, suggests it is an intermediate taxonomic entity and should be placed in a single genus within the herpetoviridae subfamily.Despite its preliminary characterization, this study can clearly direct our research to elucidate its biological function and physiological features of this newly identified UL55 gene.