Isolation, cloning and in silico study of hexon gene of fowl adenovirus 4 (FAV4) isolates associated with hydro pericardium syndrome in domestic fowl

Abstract

Hydropericardium syndrome is an important emerging disease of domestic fowl caused by fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAV-4). The full length hexon gene was isolated by PCR from the three virus isolates and it has been possible to clone hexon gene from all the three isolates into pGEM-T Easy vector, sequenced and analyzed using online bioinformatics tools (ExPASy server). The sequences were submitted to NCBI Gen Bank. These sequences showed signifcant homology with FAV-4 hexon gene sequences available in the NCBI Gen Bank and also found to be clustered with FAV-9 and FAV-10 serotypes. Probable secondary structures were also studied and compared using on line ExPASy servers. Possible B-cell epitopes were also predicted using on line ABCpred server and their position on the 3D structure of the proteins were also studied. © 2011 Asthana M, et al.