THE VACCINIA VIRUS HindⅢ K FRAGMENT ENCODES A NOVEL PROTEIN BELONGING TO THE SERPIN SUPERFAMILY

摘要

The 1893-base pair nucleotide sequence of the EcoRⅠ-HindⅢ fragment of vaccinia virus Tiantan strain HindⅢ K clone is determined by the dideoxy chain termination method. A search in the NBRF protein sequence database using FASTA and other microcomputer programs reveals that several proteins belonging to the serpin (serine protease inhibitor) superfamily have striking similarities to tho protein encoded by the HindⅢ Kl ORF. On the basis of the dot-matrix analysis and sequence alignment, the Kl-encoded protein is shown as a novel member of the serpin superfamily. The putative reactive site and switch sequence of this novel serpin are then compared with those of other serpins. The probable evolutionary and possible functional relationships are discussed.