Cloning and Sequence Analysis of the Nucleocapsid Gene of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Chinju99

The nucleocapsid (N) gene of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) Chinju99 which was previously isolated in Chinju, Korea was cloned and sequenced to establish the information for the development of genetically engineered diagnostic reagents. Also, sequences of the nucleotides and deduced amino acids of the Chinju99 N gene were analyzed by alignment with those of CV777 and Br1/87. The nucleotide sequence encoding the entire N gene open reading frame (ORF) of Chinju99 was 1326 bases long and encoded a protein of 441 amino acids with predicted M (r) of 49 kDa. It consisted of 405 adenine (30.5%), 293 cytosine (22.1%), 334 guanines (25.2%) and 294 thymines (22.2%) residues. The Chinju99 N ORF nucleotide sequence was 96.5% and 96.4% homologous with that of the CV777 and Br1/87, respectively. The Chinju99 N protein revealed 96.8% amino acid identity with that of Br1/87 and CV777, respectively. The amino acid sequence contained seven potential sites for threonine (T)- or serine (S)-linked phosphorylation by each protein kinase C and casein kinase II.