Comparative Amino Acid Sequences of Dengue Viruses

Abstract: Amino acid (AA) sequences of 4 serotype of dengue viruses deduced from their nucleotide (nt) sequences of genomic RNA were analyzed for each genome segment and each stretch of 10 AA residues. Precursor of membrane protein (pM), and 4 nonstructural proteins (NS1, NS3, NS4B, NS5) were highly conserved, while another nonstructural protein (NS2A) was least conserved among 5 strains of dengue viruses. When homology was compared among heterotypic viruses, type 1 and type 3 dengue viruses showed close relationships, while type 4 dengue virus was relatively remote from other types. When AA sequences were compared for each 10 AA residues, some highly conserved as well as least conserved domains were identified. Significance of these findings for diagnostic virology and epidemiological survey was discussed. Key words: Dengue virus, Flavivirus, Amino acid sequence, Homology Dengue viruses of 4 different serotypes belong to the family Flaviviridae (Westaway et al.t 1985), and transmitted among humans by mosquitoes, primarily Aedes aegypti (Clarke and Casals, 1965), thus arthropod-borne viruses (or arvoviruses). Disease manifestation