title: The significance of the individual Meq-clustered miRNAs of Marek's disease virus in oncogenesis.
abstract: Marek's disease virus (MDV) is an important oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that induces rapid-onset T-cell lymphomas in its natural hosts. The Meq-clustered miRNAs encoded by MDV have been suggested to play potentially critical roles in the induction of lymphomas. Using the technique of bacterial artificial chromosome mutagenesis, we have presently constructed a series of specific miRNA-deleted mutants and demonstrate that these miRNAs are not essential for replication of MDV and have no effects on the early cytolytic or latent phases of the developing disease. However, compared to the parental GX0101, mortality of birds infected with the mutants GXΔmiR-M2, GXΔmiR-M3, GXΔmiR-M5, GXΔmiR-M9 and GXΔmiR-M12 was reduced from 100 % to 18 %, 30 %, 48 %, 24 % and 14 %, coupled with gross tumour incidence reduction from 28 % to 8 %, 4 %, 12 %, 8 % and 0 %, respectively. Our data confirm that except for mdv1-miR-M4, the other Meq-clustered miRNAs also play critical roles in MDV oncogenesis. Further work will be needed to elucidate the miRNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms that trigger the development of MD lymphomas.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, PR China.|College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Zu-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, PR China.
authors.forename: Ai-Jun
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Pulike Biological Engineering, Luoyang 471000, PR China.
authors.forename: Ya-Jie
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Jia-Qi
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.|Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Zhong
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou 225009, PR China.|College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Gai-Ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, PR China.|Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, PR China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D063646:Carcinogenesis; D002645:Chickens; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D008381:Herpesvirus 2, Gallid / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology; D008380:Marek Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012367:RNA, Viral