Prokaryotic Expression and Bioinformatics Analysis of VP2 Gene of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus C4 Strain

This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between the virulence characteristics of infectious bursal disease virus(IBDV) C4 strain and its VP2 amino acid sequence. The RNA of IBDV C4 strain was extracted,and its VP2 gene was amplified by RT-PCR.VP2 nucleotide sequences and deduced amino acids of different virulent IBDV strains were compared. At the same time, prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a(+) was used to express the VP2 gene. The expression of recombinant VP2 protein was detected by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The results showed that the VP2 gene of IBDV C4 strain belonged to the very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) in evolutionary relationship, the VP2 nucleotides homology between IBDV C4 strain and other vvIBDV strains were 98.1% to 98.7%, and there were no mutations in S-W-S-A-S-G-S (326-332 amino acids) and 222(A), 256(I), 294(I) and 299(S). The VP2 amino acid sequence of IBDV C4 strain was consistent with the characteristics of other vvIBDV strains. However, there were three differences amino acids sites at 201(D/G), 281(G/R) and 313(V/A) between the amino acids of the C4 strain and the very virulent strain UK661. And the change of 281(R) was in the small hydrophilic region of 279 to 290, which was related to the antigenicity of the virus; The recombinant VP2 protein molecular weight expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 was about 67 ku. This study provided a basis for further research on antigenic changes resulting from amino acid variation of 201(G), 281 (R) and 313(A). These results indicated that the VP2 gene of the IBDV C4 strain was consistent with the major characteristics of the vvIBDV strain VP2 gene. The difference of three amino acid sites in the vvIBDV strain C4 might be related to the evolution of virulence of IBDV strain in China.