title: Deletion of glycoprotein gM of pseudorabies virus results in attenuation for the natural host.
abstract: Glycoprotein M (gM) is one of the very few non-essential glycoproteins conserved throughout the herpesvirus family. Despite this conservation little is known about its function in virus replication. To test for the importance of gM in vivo in a natural virus-host system, 6-week-old piglets were intranasally infected with a gM- mutant of the alphaherpesvirus pseudorabies virus (PrV). Following infection virus excretion from the nasal mucosa was decreased ca. 100-fold compared to wild-type or revertant virus. Clinical signs were limited to transiently elevated temperature. In contrast, animals infected by wild-type or revertant virus exhibited high fever, severe respiratory symptoms and affliction of the central nervous system. Prior infection with gM-PrV conferred protection against challenge infection and animals mounted an antibody response against gM after wild-type virus infection. Thus, gM is important for efficient virus replication in vivo and deletion of gM may contribute to development of live attenuated, genetically marked vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cellular Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institutes, Federal Research Centre for Virus Diseases of Animals, Insel Riems, Germany.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gerdts
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Klupp
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Mettenleiter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D011558:Herpesvirus 1, Suid / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011557:Pseudorabies / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000821:virology*; D022421:Pseudorabies Vaccines; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013552:Swine; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014774:Virulence; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000502:physiology; D017201:Virus Shedding
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D022421:Pseudorabies Vaccines; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014765:Viral Vaccines; C042966:pseudorabies virus glycoproteins