The outer capsid protein VP4 of equine rotavirus strain H-2 represents a unique VP4 type by amino acid sequence analysis

The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of G serotype 3 equine rotavirus strain H-2 was determined. A predicted 776-amino-acid H-2 VP4 shows less than or equal to 85.3% identity to other rotavirus VP4 types sequenced to date and thus represents a new P serotype. A PCR-generated probe derived from a cDNA clone of H-2 gene 4 hybridized to gene 4 of several tissue-culture-adapted equine rotavirus isolates, demonstrating that the gene 4 allele present in the H-2 strain is present in the equine rotavirus population.