ANALYSIS OF THE DOMESTIC ISOLATES OF THE AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS BY THE EP402R GENETIC MARKER

Recently, the problem of convergent evolution of pathogens (viruses, bacteria) and macroorganism has been of great interest. In turn, the study of evolutionary variability, from the point of view of the virocentric model of evolution, can become an additional link in determining the direction of the evolution of life as a whole. Further study of the genetic variability of the ASF virus genes and the determination of the correlation between the properties of the virus, territorial affiliation and duration of persistence will provide a molecular epizootological picture of the spread of the disease in the Russian Federation. The EP402R marker gene encoding the CD2v protein is known to determine the hemadsorbing properties of the ASF virus, is involved in cell adhesion, and is also associated with virulence and modulation of the immune response. In order to detect changes in the marker gene EP402R of the ASF virus, we made a sample of twenty-two isolates isolated in the Russian Federation from 2017 to 2018. DNA of the ASF virus was isolated from all selected isolates and PCR of the EP402R gene of the ASF virus was performed, followed by extraction of the resulting nucleic acids from agarose gel. Sequence alignment was performed using the Bioedit program and the ClustalW algorithm. Sequencing of nucleotide sequences was carried out using specific primers for the EP402R gene fragment of the ASF virus. In the course of our work, it was found that isolates isolated from domestic pigs and wild boars did not contain genetic changes in the EP402R gene. This region of the genome was found to be identical to the original genome-wide reference strain "Georgia 2007/1".