Predicted sequence of the host-protective immunogen of infectious bursal disease virus

The genome of Australian strain 002-73 of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) has been cloned as cDNA fragments into an expression library based on pUR plasmid vectors. Recombinant colonies were selected with a monoclonal antibody specific for the 32-kDa host-protective immunogen of IBDV and fully characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis. The amino acid sequence of several tryptic peptides derived from the native 32-kDa structural protein has confirmed the coding region assignment and nucleotide sequence data. We believe this to be the first published sequence of a birnavirus-encoded protein and these data may provide the basis for an effective subunit vaccine against IBDV.