Characterization of an infectious clone of the wild-type yellow fever virus Asibi strain that is able to infect and disseminate in mosquitoes.
Infectious clone technology provides an opportunity to study the molecular basis of arthropod-virus interactions in detail. This study describes the development of an infectious clone of the prototype yellow fever virus Asibi strain (YFV-As) with the purpose of identifying sequences or domains that influence infection dynamics in the mosquito vector. The full-length cDNA of YFV-As virus was produced from RT-PCR products of parental viral RNA. These were cloned into a low-copy-number plasmid previously used to develop the YFV-17D infectious clone (pACNR/FLYF-17D). Virus recovered from the infectious clone exhibited biological characteristics similar to those of the parental YFV-As, including replication kinetics, reactivity to flavivirus cross-reactive and YFV-specific antibodies and infection and dissemination rates in Aedes aegypti, the principal mosquito vector of YFV. These data provide the basis for future studies with chimeric Asibi/17D viruses to identify the determinants of vaccine attenuation in the vector.
McElroy
Kate L
KL
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Keiller 2.104, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0609, USA.
Tsetsarkin
Konstantin A
KA
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Keiller 2.104, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0609, USA.
Vanlandingham
Dana L
DL
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Keiller 2.104, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0609, USA.
Higgs
Stephen
S
Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Keiller 2.104, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0609, USA.
D000330:Aedes / Q000821:virology*; D000818:Animals; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D014779:Virus Replication; D015005:Yellow fever virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012367:RNA, Viral