Nueleotide seqnecnce Analysis of the H aem agglutinin Protein Gene of Giant Panda Strain of Canine Distemper Virus

The sequence analysis of the haemagglutinin (H) protein gene of giant panda strain of canine distemper virus (CDV) from giant panda in China was conducted and compared with Onderstepoort vaccine strain. Four pairs of primers were designed and synthesized. The PCR products amplified from GP strain were directly sequenced after they were purified. There are 1?946 nt of the complete H gene. The H gene of the GP strain showed that the largest open reading frame (ORF) encoding a protein of 607 amino acid residues started at the ATG at position 21 23 and extended to a termination codon (TGA at position 1?842 1?844). The deduced amino acid sequence of the H protein of the GP strains was compared with the CDV vaccine Onderstepoort strain extracted from the GenBank database. The sequence of the H gene and deduced H protein of the GP strain showed an identity of 91.4% and 90.2% with Onderstepoort strain, respectively. All the 12 cysteine residues found in the GP strain H protein were conserved in Onderstepoort strai