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Expression of the env gene from the avian endogenous retrovirus ALVE and regulation by miR-155

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Abstract

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are important retroelements that reside in host genomes. However, ERV expression patterns and regulatory mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) and MSB1 cells infected with Marek’s disease virus (MDV) exhibited significantly increased expression of env from the endogenous retrovirus ALVE. In contrast, env expression was significantly lower in CEF and MSB1 cells infected with exogenous avian leukosis virus J (ALVJ) at the early infection stage. Furthermore, env was found to be ubiquitously expressed in various chicken tissues, with high expression in certain tissues at 2 days of age and low levels in most tissues, including immune organs (thymus, spleen and bursa) as well as the brain and heart, at 35 days of age. Sequence analysis revealed miR-155 target sites in env transcripts, which was verified using a firefly luciferase reporter assay, and treatment with miR-155 agomir significantly decreased levels of env transcripts in MSB1 and CEF cells. Together, these findings suggest that the env gene from the endogenous retrovirus ALVE is regulated by miR-155.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2012CB517605), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81171965, 81372237 and 91540117), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M571828), and Projects Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Institute of Epigenetics and Epigenomics, Yangzhou University, No. 48 East Wenhui Road, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, 225009, People’s Republic of China

      Xuming Hu, Wenqi Zhu, Shihao Chen, Yangyang Liu, Zhen Sun, Tuoyu Geng, Xiaoyan Wang, Bo Gao, Chengyi Song & Hengmi Cui

    2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, People’s Republic of China

      Xuming Hu, Wenqi Zhu, Shihao Chen, Yangyang Liu, Zhen Sun, Tuoyu Geng, Xiaoyan Wang, Bo Gao, Chengyi Song & Hengmi Cui

    3. Ministry of Education Key Lab for Avian Preventive Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, People’s Republic of China

      Aijian Qin

    4. Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou, 225009, People’s Republic of China

      Aijian Qin & Hengmi Cui

    5. Institute of Comparative Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, People’s Republic of China

      Hengmi Cui

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    1. Xuming Hu
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    Correspondence to Hengmi Cui.

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    All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of Yangzhou University. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Yangzhou University (License Number: 06R015). This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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    X. Hu, W. Zhu and S. Chen contributed equally to this work.

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    Hu, X., Zhu, W., Chen, S. et al. Expression of the env gene from the avian endogenous retrovirus ALVE and regulation by miR-155. Arch Virol 161, 1623–1632 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-016-2833-8

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-016-2833-8

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