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Title: MAREK'S DISEASE VIRUS GENE LORF11 DELETION MUTANT IS ESSENTIAL FOR REPLICATION IN CHICKENS

Author
item Lee, Lucy
item Silva, Robert
item CUI, XIAOPING - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item REDDY, SANJAY - TEXAS A & M

Submitted to: American Veterinary Medical Association Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/28/2004
Publication Date: 7/28/2004
Citation: Lee, L.F., Silva, R.F., Cui, X., Reddy, S. 2004. Marek's Disease virus gene LORF11 deletion mutant is essential for replication in chickens [abstract]. American Veterinary Medical Association. p. 60.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Marek's disease virus (MDV) is an oncogenic herpesvirus, which causes a highly contagious neoplastic disease in chickens, Marek's disease. The disease is characterized by the development of T-cell lymphomas, neurological disorders and immune-deficiency, and for some strains, atherosclerosis. This disease can be successfully prevented by vaccination with antigenically related nonpathogenic or attenuated virus strains of three serotypes of MDV. The genomic structure of MDV is similar to that of herpes simplex virus (HSV) and consists of a long and short region, each flanked by inverted repeat sequences and terminal repeats. DNA sequence comparison between three serotypes of MDV revealed a common open reading frame (LORF11) that is unique for MDV. The LORF11 comprises of 2711 nucleotides long and potentially encodes a protein of 903 amino acids. Because of its uniqueness and the size of the gene, we are interested in studying the role of this unique gene in replication both in vitro and in vivo. Using an overlapping cosmid clone library of the MDV genome, we were successful in constructing deletion mutants of MDV lacking LORF11. Our result showed that the LORF11 deletion mutant replicated well in cell culture similar to the wild type Md5 virus. However, the mutant virus did not replicate in lymphoid organs (spleen, bursa and thymus) of infected chickens indicating that it is essential for replication in chickens.