Existence of two forms of L protein of Newcastle disease virus isolates due to a compensatory mutation in Domain V

Nucleotide sequence comparison of the L gene of the Malaysian neurotropic-viscerotropic velogenic NDV strain AF2240 with other NDV strains revealed a single nucleotide insertion at position 3870. This mutation is compensated by a nucleotide deletion downstream at position 3958 which results in two forms of the L proteins containing a 30-amino acid substitution in Domain V. This compensatory mutation does not correlate with the pathogenicity of the viral strains but it may affect the viral replication as Domain V is believed to play an important role in the replication of paramyxoviruses.