The L gene of J paramyxovirus plays a critical role in viral pathogenesis.
J paramyxovirus (JPV) was first isolated from moribund mice with hemorrhagic lung lesions in Australia in the 1970s. Recent sequencing of JPV (JPV-LW) confirms that JPV is a paramyxovirus with several unique features. However, neither JPV-LW nor a recombinant JPV based on its sequence (rJPV-LW) caused obvious illness in mice. In this work, we analyzed a different JPV isolate (JPV-BH), which behaved differently from JPV-LW; JPV-BH grew more slowly in Vero cells and had less of a cytopathic effect on tissue culture cells but caused severe disease in mice. We have determined the whole genome sequence of JPV-BH. There were several nucleotide sequence differences between JPV-BH and JPV-LW, one in the leader sequence, one in the GX gene, and three in the L gene. The high sequence identity between JPV-BH and JPV-LW suggests that JPV-BH and JPV-LW are the same virus strain but were obtained at different passages from different laboratories. To understand the roles of these nucleotide sequence differences in pathogenicity in mice, we generated a recombinant JPV-BH strain (rJPV-BH) and hybrid rJPV-BH strains with sequences from the leader sequence (rJPV-BH-Le-LW), the GX gene (rJPV-BH-GX-LW), and the L gene (rJPV-BH-L-LW) of JPV-LW and compared their pathogenicities in mice. We have found that rJPV-BH-L-LW was attenuated in mice, indicating that nucleotide sequence differences in the L gene play a critical role in pathogenesis.
Department of Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Zhuo
Z
Li
Jie
J
Xu
Zhenhai
Z
Chen
Xiudan
X
Gao
Lin-Fa
LF
Wang
Christopher
C
Basler
Kaori
K
Sakamoto
Biao
B
He
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D018184:Paramyxoviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D018098:Paramyxovirinae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
C431770:L protein, paramyxoviridae; D014764:Viral Proteins