Shimao Zhu, Hui Li, Farui Luo, Linlin Liang and Caiping Guo
Rabies virus is the prototypical species of neurotropic viruses and is the main causative agent of rabies, an ancient central nervous system disease that is almost invariably fatal. Recently, CTNCEC25, the China vaccine strain CTN-1 adapted to chicken embryo cells, was obtained and its complete genome was sequenced. Previous studies have demonstrated that CTNCEC25 possessed high immunogenicity and induced high levels of anti-rabies antibodies in animals. In the present study, the molecular characteristics and bioinformatic analysis of CTNCEC25 N gene were investigated. Sequence alignment showed that a single synonymous mutation was occurred in the CTNCEC25 N gene compared to the parent CTN-1 strain and all the important motifs and antigenic sites were conserved in CTNCEC25 N. The percentage homology of CTNCEC25 N gene with other rabies virus strains ranged from 99.9% to 84.8%. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that CTNCEC25 was closely related and clustered into the same group with most of those rabies virus street strains isolated in different regions in China. These results provide fundamental data to the characteristics of the CTNCEC25 N gene and pave the way for future application of CTNCEC25 for rabies control in China.