The MGF360-16R ORF of African swine fever virus strain Georgia encodes for a non-essential gene that interacts with host proteins SERTAD3 and SDCBP

Authors: RAMIREZ-MEDINA, ELIZABETH - University Of Connecticut; SILVA, EDIANE - University Of Kansas; RAI, AYUSHI - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE); Pruitt, Sarah; VUONO, ELIZABETH - University Of Mississippi; VELAZQUEZ-SALINAS, LAURO - University Of Kansas; BERGGREN, KEITH - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE); Zhu, James; Borca, Manuel; Gladue, Douglas

Submitted to: Viruses
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/2020
Publication Date: 3/17/2020
Citation: Ramirez-Medina, E., Silva, E., Rai, A., Pruitt, S.E., Vuono, E.A., Velazquez-Salinas, L., Berggren, K.A., Zhu, J.J., Borca, M.V., Gladue, D.P. 2020. The MGF360-16R ORF of African swine fever virus strain Georgia encodes for a non-essential gene that interacts with host proteins SERTAD3 and SDCBP. Viruses. https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.02017-19.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.02017-19

Interpretive Summary: African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a devastating disease in swine, called African swine fever (ASF), that is currently spreading across Europe and Asia. There is no available vaccine for ASF, and currently only experimental live attenuated vaccines are derived from deletions of individual genes in the ASFV genome. In this study we a delete a gene in ASFV, that that has never been deleted before and did not alter the pathogenesis of ASFV. We identified two cellular proteins that bind this gene giving insight into how ASFV interacts with cells.

Technical Abstract: African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a contagious and frequently lethal disease of pigs with significant economic consequences to the swine industry. The ASFV genome encodes for more than 160 genes, but only a few of them have been studied in detail. Here we report the characterization of open reading frame (ORF) MGF360-16R. Kinetic studies of virus RNA transcription demonstrated that MGF360-16R gene is transcribed as a late virus protein. Analysis of host-protein interactions for MGF360-16R gene using a yeast two-hybrid screen identified SERTAD3 and SDCBP as host protein binding partners, SERTAD3 and SDCBP are both nuclear transcriptional players and SDCBP has been shown to be involve in virus movement in the host cell. . Interaction between MGF360-16R and SERTAD3 and SDCBP host proteins was confirmed in eukaryotic cells transfected with plasmids expressing MGF360-16R and SERTAD3 or SDCBP fused to fluorescent tags. A recombinant ASFV lacking the MGF360-16R gene (ASFV-G-'MGF360-16R) was developed from the highly virulent field isolate Georgia2007 (ASFV-G) and was used to show that MGF360-16R is a non-essential gene. ASFV-G-'MGF360-16R had a similar replication ability in primary swine macrophage cell cultures when compared to its parental virus ASFV-G. Experimental infection of domestic pigs showed that ASFV-G-'MGF360-16R is as virulent as the parental virus ASFV-G.