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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Avian Disease and Oncology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #342720
Title: A premature stop codon within the tvb receptor gene results in decreased susceptibility to infection by avian leukosis virus subgroups B, D, and E

Author
item CHEN, WEIGUO - South China Agricultural University
item LIU, YANG - South China Agricultural University
item LI, AIJUN - Changqing Key Laboratory
item LI, XINJIAN - South China Agricultural University
item LI, HONGXING - South China Agricultural University
item DAI, ZHENKAI - South China Agricultural University
item YAN, YIMING - South China Agricultural University
item ZHANG, XINHENG - South China Agricultural University
item SHU, DINGMING - Guangdong Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Zhang, Huanmin
item LIN, WENCHENG - South China Agricultural University
item MA, JINGYUN - South China Agricultural University
item XIE, QINGMEI - South China Agricultural University

Submitted to: Oncotarget
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/3/2017
Publication Date: 11/18/2017
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/5935357
Citation: Chen, W., Liu, Y., Li, A., Li, X., Li, H., Dai, Z., Yan, Y., Zhang, X., Shu, D., Zhang, H., Lin, W., Ma, J., Xie, Q. 2017. A premature stop codon within the tvb receptor gene results in decreased susceptibility to infection by avian leukosis virus subgroups B, D, and E. Oncotarget. 8(62):105942-105956.

Interpretive Summary: Avian leukosis virus (ALV) is an oncogenic virus causing avian leukosis in susceptible chickens. Although this disease is well controlled by management measures in the U.S. poultry farms, susceptible chickens to ALV remain to be twofold in costing the poultry industry. One is the annual extra specific management fees on farms in the country, and the other is potential trading issues oversea since susceptible chickens, once arrived in differently managed oversea farms environment, will highly likely catch and develop the disease. This report describes a novel gene form that has been identified and experimentally approved conferring genetic resistance to ALV infection. The finding of this study could be very well used to improve genetic resistance of the chickens against ALV infection.

Technical Abstract: Avian leukosis virus (ALV) is an oncogenic virus causing a variety of neoplasms in chickens. The group of avian leukosis virus in chickens contains six closely related subgroups, A to E and J. The prevalence of ALVs in hosts may have imposed strong selective pressure toward resistance to ALVs infection. The tvb gene encodes Tvb receptor and determines susceptibility or resistance to the subgroups B, D, and E ALV. In this study, we characterized a novel resistant allele of the tvb receptor gene, tvbr3, which carries a single-nucleotide substitution (c.298C>T) that constitutes a premature termination codon within the fourth exon and leads to the production of a truncated TvbR3 receptor protein. As a result, we observed decreased susceptibility to infection by ALV-B, ALV-D and ALV-E both in vitro and in vivo, and decreased the binding affinity of the TvbR3 receptor for the subgroups B, D, and E ALV envelope glycoproteins. Additionally, we found that the tvbr3 allele was prevalent in Chinese broiler lines. This study demonstrated that premature termination codon in the tvb receptor gene can confer genetic resistance to subgroups B, D, and E ALV in the host, and indicates that tvbr3 could potentially serve as a resistant target against ALV-B, ALV-D and ALV-E infection.