Serological relationships among the over-expressed coat proteins of allexiviruses

Coat protein genes of six members of the genus Allexivirus, Garlic viruses -A, -B, -C, -D, -E and -X, were over-expressed in bacteria and used to prepare polyclonal antibodies. In western blot analysis, Garlic virus D (GarV-D) and GarV-E were closely related serologically and there were weaker relationships between some other pairs, particularly GarV-E with GarV-A, GarV-X with GarV-A, GarV-X with GarV-B and GarV-X with GarV-C. Sequence analysis suggested that there was no simple relationship between amino acid identity and serological properties.