Cloning and Sequence Analysis of N gene encoding Akabane virus Nucleotide Capsid Protein
Abstract: The nucleocapsid protein (N) gene of Akabane virus strain YN isolated from bovine was amplified by RT-PCR. The product of 696 bp fragment was obtained as expected. The amplified fragment was then cloned into the pDM18-T vector and confirmed by PCR, endonuclease analysis, and sequencing. The results demonstrated that nucleotide homology with other published AKAV N genes was between 94.2%~98.3%, and the deduced amino acid homology was between 97.6%~99.5%, respectively. Therefore, nucleotide capsid protein gene of AKAV was conserved. Phylogenetic tree constructed with 17 reference strains of 696 bp of the N gene showed that AKAV-YN strain is related to Tinaroo strain.