[Cloning and sequencing of attacus ricini nuclear polyhedrosis virus polyhedrin gene]

Attacus ricini is a species of insect which only grows in China. It is expected to construct a new expression system for genetic engineering by using ArNPV as a vector. We have established an ArNPV gene library. The 1.1 kb DNA fragment containing ArNPV Ph gene was subcloned. Sequencing analysis shows that the 735 bp Ph structural gene has the homology of 76% and 81% with those of AcNPV and BmNPV respectively. The Rohrmann box in the ArNPV 5'-end regulation region is very similar to those of various other NPVs, but the 3'-end downstream sequence has almost no homology with those of AcNPV and BmNPV, demonstrating the characteristic property of the structure of ArNPV Ph gene. Other structural features of the Ph gene promoter are also discussed in this paper.