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Functional analysis of the UL24 protein of suid herpesvirus 1

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Abstract

The UL24 homologous genes are conserved in alphaherpesviruses. However, the proximity of the UL24 gene and the UL23 gene encoding for thymidine kinase (TK) in the genome of suid herpesvirus 1 (SuHV-1) makes it difficult to mutate UL24 without affecting the expression of the TK gene, and thus functional studies of the UL24 gene have lagged behind. In this study, CRISPR/Cas9 and homologous recombination were adopted to generate UL24 and TK mutant viruses. Deletion of either the UL24 or the TK gene resulted in significantly reduced SuHV-1 replication and spread capacity in Vero cells. However, UL24-deleted virus still maintained a certain degree of lethality in mice, while TK-deleted viruses completely lost their lethality in mice. Similarly, neurovirulence of UL24-deleted virus in mice was not significantly affected compared to parental virus. In comparison, infection with the TK-deleted viruses resulted in significantly reduced neurovirulence and complete loss of lethality. In addition, and for the first time, viral UL24 protein was found to be expressed late during SuHV-1 infection; enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP) labeled UL24 protein was shown to be localized in the nucleus via heterologous expression. In conclusion, the UL24 gene of SuHV-1 encodes a nuclear-localized viral protein and acts as a minor virulence-associated factor compared to the TK gene.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0500100), China Agriculture Research System (NYCYTX-009), and Shanghai Municipal Agriculture Science and Technology Key Project (2015, 1-7 and 2016, 4-2).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Chao Ye and Jing Chen contributed equally to the study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Swine Infectious Diseases, Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 518, Ziyue Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Chao Ye, Jing Chen, Xuefei Cheng, Shasha Zhou, Shan Jiang, Jingjing Xu, Hao Zheng, Wu Tong, Guoxin Li & Guangzhi Tong

  2. Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, China

    Hao Zheng, Wu Tong, Guoxin Li & Guangzhi Tong

Authors
  1. Chao Ye
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  2. Jing Chen
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  3. Xuefei Cheng
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  4. Shasha Zhou
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  5. Shan Jiang
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  6. Jingjing Xu
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  7. Hao Zheng
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  8. Wu Tong
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  9. Guoxin Li
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  10. Guangzhi Tong
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Contributions

CY and JC conducted the most experiments and drafted the manuscript. GT critically revised the manuscript. XC, SZ, SJ, JX, HZ, WT, GL helped with the experiments. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guangzhi Tong.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no confict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Research involving human and animal participants

The animal experiments were performed according to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China. The animal ethics approved number was SHVRI-MO-2017070588.

Additional information

Communicated by William Dundon.

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Cite this article

Ye, C., Chen, J., Cheng, X. et al. Functional analysis of the UL24 protein of suid herpesvirus 1. Virus Genes 55, 76–86 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-018-1619-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-018-1619-3

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