A novel envelope protein involved in White spot syndrome virus infection.

One open reading frame (designated vp76) from the White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) genome has the motif of a cytokine I receptor and has been identified as a structural protein. In this paper, vp76 was expressed in Escherichia coli and used to prepare a specific antibody to determine the location of the corresponding protein in the intact virion, the nucleocapsids and the envelope of WSSV. Western blotting with the VP76 antiserum confirmed that VP76 was an envelope protein of WSSV. To investigate the function of the VP76, WSSV was neutralized with the VP76-specific antiserum at different concentrations and injected intramuscularly into crayfish. The mortality curves showed that the VP76 antiserum could partially attenuate infection with WSSV, suggesting that VP76 is an envelope protein involved in WSSV infection.