title: Species-specific deletion of the viral attachment glycoprotein of avian metapneumovirus.
abstract: The avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) genome encodes the fusion (F), small hydrophobic (SH), and attachment glycoprotein (G) as envelope glycoproteins. The F and G proteins mainly function to allow viral entry into host cells during the early steps of the virus life cycle. The highly variable AMPV G protein is a major determinant for distinguishing virus subtypes. Sequence analysis was used to determine if any differences between avian or mammalian cell propagated subtype C AMPV could be detected for the 1.8kb G gene. As a result, the complete 1.8kb G gene was found to be present when AMPV was propagated in our immortal turkey turbinate (TT-1) cell line regardless of passage number. Surprisingly, AMPV propagated for 15 or more passages in mammalian Vero cells revealed an essentially deleted G gene in the viral genome, resulting in no G gene mRNA expression. Although the Vero cell propagated AMPV genome contained a small 122 nucleotide fragment of the G gene, no other mRNA variants were detected from either mammalian or avian propagated AMPV. The G gene truncation might be caused by cellular molecular mechanisms that are species-specific. The lack of viral gene deletions suggests that avian cell propagated AMPV will provide a better alternative host for live recombinant vaccine development based on a reverse genetics system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
authors.forename: Byung-Whi
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Linda K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: Douglas N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D029121:Metapneumovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013045:Species Specificity; D014422:Turkeys; D014709:Vero Cells; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D053585:Virus Attachment; D014776:Virus Cultivation
chemical_list: D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins