Establishment of an indicator cell line to quantify bovine foamy virus infection.
A cell line derived from baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells was transfected with the enhanced green fluorescent protein gene driven by the bovine foamy virus (BFV) long terminal repeat (LTR) to establish a BFV indicator cell line (BICL). Among 48 clones, one clone was chosen for its little constitutive enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression and high level of EGFP expression after activation by BFV infection. By detecting the EGFP expression of the BFV indicator cell line, the titers of BFV were quantified by the end point method. As a result, the titer determined by the EGFP based assay 5-6 days post infection (d.p.i.) was 100 fold higher than traditional assays measuring cytopathic effects 8-9 d.p.i.. Moreover, the EGFP based assay was also used to determine the titer of those cells infected by BFV without inducing cytopathic effects. Using this simple and rapid assay, we examined the in vitro host range of BFV. It was found that BFV can productively infect various cell lines derived from bovine, human, rat and monkey.
Ma
Zhe
Z
Key Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology (Ministry of Education) and Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics (Tianjin), College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
Hao
Peng
P
Yao
Xue
X
Liu
Chang
C
Tan
Juan
J
Liu
Li
L
Yang
Rongge
R
Geng
Yunqi
Y
Chen
Qimin
Q
Qiao
Wentao
W
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D016092:Spumavirus / Q000254:growth & development*
C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins