The nucleoprotein (N) gene of the coronavirus of pigeon origin (PSH) was cloned and sequenced A pair of primers based on the nucleoprotein gene sequences of group 3 coronaviruses was designed and used to amplify the N gene of PSH The PCR product was purified and cloned into the pMD18-T vector. The positive recombinant pTN was used for sequencing. The cloned 1275bp fragment covered all the open reading frame of N gene and potentially encoded 409 amino acids. The results of comparative sequence analysis indicated that the nucleotide sequence of N gene of this strain shared 67.4%～96.6% identity with group 3 coronaviruses, and the predicted amino acid sequence shared 67.4%～97.8% identity, while only limited identity (<41.5%) was observed with group 1 and group 2 coronaviruses. Based on these results, PCoV PSH strain was identified as a member of group 3 coronaviruses.
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