Characterization of duck enteritis virus UL53 gene and glycoprotein K

Most of the previous research work had focused on the epidemiology and prevention of duck enteritis virus (DEV). Whilst with the development of protocols in molecular biology, nowadays more and more information about the genes of DEV was reported. But little information about DEV UL53 gene and glycoprotein K(gK) was known except our reported data.

In our paper, the fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR(FQ-RT-PCR) assay and nucleic acid inhibition test were used to study the transcription characteristic of the DEV UL53 gene. Except detecting the mRNA of DEV UL53 gene, the product gK encoded by UL53 gene was detected through the expression kinetics of UL53 gene by the purified rabbit anti-UL53 protein polyclonal antibodies. Western-blotting and indirect immunofluorescence assays were used to detect gK. From the results of these experiments, the UL53 gene and gK were respectively identified as a late gene and a really late protein. On the other hand, the indirect immunofluorescence assay provided another information that the intracellular localization of DEV gK was mainly distributed in cytoplasm.

By way of conclusions, we conceded that DEV UL53 gene is a really late gene, which is coincident with properties of UL53 homologs from other herpesvirus, such as ILTV(Infectious Laryngotracheitis virus) and HSV-1(Herpes simplex virus type 1). The properties of intracellular localization about gK protein provided a foundation for further functional analysis and further studies will be focused on constructing of the UL53 gene DEV mutant.