Nucleotide sequence of maize dwarf mosaic virus capsid protein gene and its expression in Escherichia coli

The 3'-terminal 1,279 nucleotide sequence of maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV) genome has been determined. This sequence contains an open reading frame of 1,023 nucleotides and a 3'-non-coding region of 256 nucleotides. The open reading frame includes all of the coding regions for the viral capsid protein (CP) and part of the viral nuclear inclusion protein (NIb). The predicted viral CP consists of 313 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 35,400. The amino acid sequence of the viral CP derived from MDMV cDNA shows about 47%-54% homology to that of 4 other potyviruses. The viral CP gene was constructed in frame with the lacZ gene in pUC19 plasmid and expressed in E. coli cells. The fusion polypeptide positively reacted in Western blot with an antiserum prepared against the native viral CP.