A comparison of measles and canine distemper virus polypeptides

The polypeptides induced by canine distemper virus (CDV) strains have been characterized by polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis of infected cell lysates labelled with 35S-methionine, 14C-amino acids, 3H-glucosamine and 3H-mannose, or 32P-orthophosphate. Seven virus-induced polypeptides have been asigned the following nomenclature and mol. wt.: a large polypeptide L (180,000); a large glycoprotein G (77,000); a nucleocapsid-associated protein P (73,000); the nucleocapsid protein N (60,000); the smaller glycoprotein F0 (59,000); a membrane protein M (35,000) and a small polypeptide S (15,000). During pulse-chase experiments with 3H-glucosamine and 14C-amino acids the intensity of the F0 band decreases and that of the F1 and F2 bands increases; the H polypeptide band becomes more diffuse and the S-protein disappears. The N- and P- but not the M-proteins have been found to be phosphorylated. The polypeptide pattern of the Onderstepoort strain of CDV has been compared with that of two other CDV and with 17 measles and subactue sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) strains. Differences in the mobilities of various polypeptides have been observed between CDV and measles and SSPE strains; however, the only consistent difference is the mol. wt. of the M-protein of CDV strains which is smaller by 2000 than that of MV and this may be a biochemical marker to distinguish CDV from measles and SSPE virus strains.