Characterization of putative proteins encoded by variable ORFs in white spot syndrome virus genome

White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus which causes mortality of several species of shrimp, being considered one of the main pathogens that affects global shrimp farming. This virus presents a complex genome of ~ 300 kb and viral isolates that present genomes with great identity. Despite this conservation, some variable regions in the WSSV genome occur in coding regions, and these putative proteins may have some relationship with viral adaptation and virulence mechanisms. Until now, the functions of these proteins were little studied. In this work, sequences and putative proteins encoded by WSSV variable regions were characterized in silico.

The in silico approach enabled determining the variability of some sequences, as well as the identification of some domains resembling the Formin homology 2, RNA recognition motif, Xeroderma pigmentosum group D repair helicase, Hemagglutinin and Ankyrin motif. The information obtained from the sequences and the analysis of secondary and tertiary structure models allow to infer that some of these proteins possibly have functions related to protein modulation/degradation, intracellular transport, recombination and endosome fusion events.

The bioinformatics approaches were efficient in generating three-dimensional models and to identify domains, thereby enabling to propose possible functions for the putative polypeptides produced by the ORFs wsv129, wsv178, wsv249, wsv463a, wsv477, wsv479, wsv492, and wsv497.