title: Experiences with infectious cDNA clones of equine arteritis virus: lessons learned and insights gained.
abstract: The advent of recombinant DNA technology, development of infectious cDNA clones of RNA viruses, and reverse genetic technologies have revolutionized how viruses are studied. Genetic manipulation of full-length cDNA clones has become an especially important and widely used tool to study the biology, pathogenesis, and virulence determinants of both positive and negative stranded RNA viruses. The first full-length infectious cDNA clone of equine arteritis virus (EAV) was developed in 1996 and was also the first full-length infectious cDNA clone constructed from a member of the order Nidovirales. This clone was extensively used to characterize the molecular biology of EAV and other Nidoviruses. The objective of this review is to summarize the characterization of the virulence (or attenuation) phenotype of the recombinant viruses derived from several infectious cDNA clones of EAV in horses, as well as their application for characterization of the molecular basis of viral neutralization, persistence, and cellular tropism.
authors.affiliation: 108 Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, Department of Veterinary Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. Electronic address: ubalasuriya@uky.edu.
authors.forename: Udeni B R
authors.initials: UB
authors.lastname: Balasuriya
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Jianqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Virus Research and Testing Group, Division of Drug Discovery Research, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon 305-343, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yun Young
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Go
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: N James
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: MacLachlan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics*; D007240:Equartevirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D006736:Horses; D059386:Reverse Genetics; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary
keywords: Arteriviruses; EAV; EVA; Equine arteritis virus; Equine viral arteritis; Reverse genetics; cDNA clones