Nucleotide Sequence of the Vaccinia Virus Hemagglutinin Gene

Vaccinia virus hemagglutinin (HA) is expressed at late time of infection cycle, and it is nonessential for virus growth. Location of the HA structural gene was determined by hybrid-arrested and hybrid-selected translation methods at the right terminus of the HindIII A fragment. The position of the HA gene was confirmed by the production of the complete HA protein in the cells transfected with the plasmid containing that region. Examination of this nucleotide sequence revealed the positions of cleavage sites for a number of restriction endonucleases. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed that the HA protein is a member of typical surface membrane glycoproteins. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence upstream of the HA coding region with corresponding region of other late genes suggested the existence of the consensus decanucleotides TTCATTTa/tGT between 34 to 18 bp upstream to the initiation codon followed by a cluster of A or T, a unique feature of the late genes of vaccinia virus. These results in conjunction with the ease of isolating HA- mutants provide a basis for a new site suitable for inserting foreign genes.