Nucleotide sequence and characterization of the p10 gene of Spodoptera litura nuclear polyhedrosis virus

The p10 gene was localized within the 3. 0 kbp BamHI fragment of the SlNPV genome. With a coding sequence of 318 nucleotides, corresponding to a protein of 105 amino acids, the p10 gene of SlNPV is the longest p10 gene identified so far in NPVs. The SlNPV p10 gene is also distinct in having two A/TTTGTA motifs in the promoter region. With 10 heptad repeats, the SlNPV p10 protein is probably forming a relatively large coiled-coil structure. The organization of SlNPV ORF552-p10 gene-ORF945 cluster is collinear with that of SpliNPV and their corresponding amino acid sequences of each ORF share high similarity. This indicates that SlNPV and SpliNPV belongs to a homologous baculovirus group.