白點症病毒是造成台灣以及世界其他地區養殖蝦類嚴重死亡的病原體。分析白點症病毒的ORFs，大部分皆無法在目前已知的資料庫比對中得到任何結果，至今只有少數基因有超越僅止於序列分析的研究，其它許多基因仍需鑑定或更進一步分析，才能瞭解它們在白點症病毒感染症中所扮演的角色。在著手進行任何一種病毒的研究時，由於病毒的結構性蛋白是第一個與寄主細胞產生交互作用的分子，益發凸顯其重要性。一般而言，病毒結構性蛋白在病毒感染寄主過程以及寄主免疫反應的誘發機制與疫苗的開發與設計上扮演重要角色。在本計畫中我們專注於白點症病毒膜蛋白wssv067基因產物，研究wssv067基因產物在蛋白質層次的定性與分析，以及利用蛋白質交互作用的技術尋找與wssv067基因產物相互作用的蛋白質。在本計畫中利用西方點墨法我們發現在病毒結構中和感染組織中具有三種不同的蛋白質型式，利用酵母菌雙雜合實驗所得結果，發現WSSV067 C端部分蛋白會與一預測的草蝦幾丁質結合蛋白結合，將此部分蛋白序列經電腦比對分析，發現具有相當吻合的第二型幾丁質結合區域。
White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the causative agent of a disease that has led to severe mortalities of cultured shrimps all over the world. However, most of the annotated WSSV ORFs encode proteins that have no homology to any known proteins or motifs. To date, only a few WSSV genes have been studied beyond this sequence analysis. Many genes that are important for the completion of WSSV's infection cycle remain either to be identified or studied further for interpreting their functional involvement duringWSSV infection. In characterizing any virus, its structural proteins are particularly important because these proteins are the first molecules to interact with the host and they therefore play critical roles in cell targeting as well as triggering host defenses. WSSV067 of Taiwan isolate is an envelop protein and it is also a best candidate for us to study the protein-protein interaction between viral protein and host receptor. Here we focus on WSSV067 to reveal its further characteristics on protein level. We also search for the moleculars interacting with WSSV067 by using protein-protein interaction skills. According to the result revealed by Western blotting, three protein forms were detected on viral structure and virus-infected tissues. Using yeast-two-hybrid analysis, WSSV067 C-terminal truncated protein binds to a putative shrimp chitin-binding protein. While aligning the protein with other known proteins, a consensus chitin-binding type-2 domain was discovered. In the researches on animal and baculovirus, 3 proteins with chitin-binding type-2 domain may participate in the defense or immune response of hosts.
