Identification of ORF1B as a unique nonstructural protein for fowl adenovirus serotype 4

Fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4), the causative agent of hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (HHS), is a double-stranded DNA virus. Although many structural proteins have been deeply studied, the coding potential of some other open reading frames (ORFs) and the biological functions of their products during virus infection have not been fully elucidated. Here, a unique nonstructural protein ORF1B of FAdV-4 was identified and its expression kinetics along infection was analyzed. Except that of FAdV-10, a member of the same genus as FAdV-4, FAdV-4 ORF1B shared as low homologous identity as 29.2% in amino acid sequence with the other ten counterparts. Structurally, ORF1B was mapped on the N-terminal region of the genome between 1485 nt to 1808 nt and predicted to only contain two α-helix. Confocal immunofluorescence assay with homemade rabbit polyclonal antibody demonstrated that ORF1B could be simultaneously observed with structural protein Fiber 1 in FAdV-4-infected cells. Western blot further showed that ORF1B could only be detected in the infected cells but not mature virions, suggesting ORF1B was a nonstructural protein. Subsequently, the expression level of ORF1B detected by qRT-PCR and IFA was gradually decreased along with FAdV-4 infection, suggesting ORF1B was an early gene transcript. These results will lay a solid foundation to further study the biological effect of ORF1B on the replication and pathogenicity of FAdV-4.