THE NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE GENE ENCODING THE NEWCASTLE-DISEASE VIRUS MEMBRANE-PROTEIN AND COMPARISONS OF MEMBRANE-PROTEIN SEQUENCES

The nucleotide sequence of a cloned cDNA copy of the mRNA encoding the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) membrane (M) protein was determined. A single open reading frame in the sequence encodes a protein of 364 amino acids with a calculated mol wt of 39,742. The predicted protein sequence does not contain extensive hydrophobic regions. The sequence does contain eight pairs of basic amino acid residues, five of which are located in the carboxyl-terminal half of the sequence. Comparisons of the NDV M protein sequence with other paramyxovirus M protein sequences reveals little homology common to all sequences. There is only 17% homology with Sendai virus M protein. A short region of homology with the VSV M protein sequence, was, however, found.