Nucleotide sequence of human enteric adenovirus type 41 hexon-associated protein VIII precursor (pVHI) including the early region E3 promoter

EcoRI fragments B and C of the human enteric adenovirus type 41 strain TAK DNA(l) were cloned, sheared by sonication and rmbcloned in M13mpl8 vector. A 1315bp piece was assembled from sequences obtained from both strands by the Sanger method(2). This sequence contains the 3' end of the 33K phosphoprotein and the complete sequence of pVHI (hexon-assotiatedprecursor). Bases 1-231 overlap with the sequence published by yos et al.(3). Ad41 pVW is highly conserved as it shows 80% homology in the amino acid sequence with Ad2 pVni(4). The promoter of the Ad41 early region E3 is located in the pVTQ gene as found for Ad2,3 and 5(5,6). The TATAA box (at position 473) and the putative cap site (at position 502) are well conserved. However, in Ad41 there is no ORF coding for a proposed E3 12.4K protein immediately downstream from pVIII, as with Ad2,3, and 5.