Summary. -Duck enteritis virus (DEV) causes a contagious, acute and highly lethal disease in all ages of birds from the order Anseriformes. DEV leads to heavy economic losses to the commercial duck industry due to its high mortality rate and decrease in egg production. With development of molecular biology, more information about DEV genes is reported, nonetheless little information is known about DEV UL29 gene and its product major DNA-binding protein or infected-cell protein 8 (ICP8). The sequence characteristics of DEV UL29 gene was initially showed in our article. Phylogenetic tree analysis provided useful proof that DEV belongs to the subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae. The predicted characteristics of ICP8 amino acid sequence showed that ICP8 possesses good immunogenicity and is a hydrophobic protein. These findings correlate with the experimental results that ICP8 protein forms inclusion bodies in the prokaryotic expression system. By immunofluorescence we have identified ICP8 as nuclear protein. All the fundamental data in this article contribute to understanding the functions of DEV UL29 gene and its product ICP8.

Summary. -Duck enteritis virus (DEV) is an acute and contagious herpesvirus infection in waterfowls, which leads to heavy economic losses in the commercial duck industry due to its high mortality rate and decreasing duck egg production. In order to understand this virus better, truncated UL27 gene (tUL27) was used to construct pET-28a-tUL27 recombinant plasmid. The tUL27 gene product, truncated gB protein (tgB), was used to prepare rabbit anti-tgB protein polyclonal antibody. The polyclonal antibody was used for characteristics of DEV glycoprotein B (gB) intracellular localization. Protein gB was firstly detected in nuclear membrane of the infected DEF, and later during the infection it appeared as the punctiform fluorescence in cytoplasm. We also proved that DEV gB is a late protein. Localization of DEV gB in nuclear membrane, suggested a possible role in virus assembly, while appearance in cytoplasm suggests its role in viral egress. All these data provide a basal and useful knowledge about the functions of DEV UL27 gene and its product gB.