The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of protein E of HLJ-1 strain of tick-borne encephalitis from northeastern China

The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the proeitn E of tick-borne encephalitis virus HLJ-1 from northeastern China were compared with those of Neudoerfl strain and Sofyn strain. HLJ-1 and Sofyn shared 94.3% homology in the nucleotide sequence and 98.8% homology in the amino acid sequence. However, the HLJ-1 strain had only 83.7% homology for nucleotides and 96% homology for amino acids, when compared with Neudoerfl strain. There were 85 nucleotide and 6 amino acid differences between HLJ-1 and Sofyn strain. The variable amino acid sites were at Ser-438→Gly, Arg-451→Lys, Ala-612→Val, Met-638→Ile, Asn-646→Thr and Val-682→Ala. Amino acid variations were found within the conservative region of protein E. Epitope mapping of protein E showed some differences at domain C between the the HLJ-1 and Sofyn strain, this is possible due to structural rearrangement of protein E at a low pH of the culture medium.