title: Virulence of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 does not always correlate with the cleavability of its fusion protein.
abstract: Some pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) strains exhibit low virulence in chickens, despite their fusion (F) protein's multi-basic cleavage site. To elucidate the molecular basis of the low pathogenicity of these strains, we constructed an infectious full-length cDNA clone of PPMV-1 strain AV324. This strain is non-virulent for chickens, although its F protein contains the typical virulence motif (112)RRKKRF(117). By using reverse genetics, we exchanged the F genes of AV324 and a virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain (Herts) and evaluated the recovered chimeric viruses for their pathogenicity in 1-day-old chickens and in embryonated eggs. Our results show that the F protein of AV324, and probably those of similar PPMV-1 strains, are functionally not different from those of virulent NDV strains and that the difference in pathogenicity must be determined by other factors.
authors.affiliation: Virology Division, Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J C F M
authors.initials: JCFM
authors.lastname: Dortmans
authors.affiliation: Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.affiliation: Virology Division, Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P J M
authors.initials: PJM
authors.lastname: Rottier
authors.affiliation: Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) of Wageningen UR, Lelystad, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B P H
authors.initials: BPH
authors.lastname: Peeters
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002645:Chickens; D010856:Columbidae / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009521:Newcastle Disease / Q000821:virology; D009522:Newcastle disease virus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay; D014774:Virulence; D053586:Virus Internalization
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins