title: Recombinant Ranaviruses for Studying Evolution of Host-Pathogen Interactions in Ectothermic Vertebrates.
abstract: Ranaviruses (Iridoviridae) are large DNA viruses that are causing emerging infectious diseases at an alarming rate in both wild and captive cold blood vertebrate species all over the world. Although the general biology of these viruses that presents some similarities with poxvirus is characterized, many aspects of their replication cycles, host cell interactions and evolution still remain largely unclear, especially in vivo. Over several years, strategies to generate site-specific ranavirus recombinant, either expressing fluorescent reporter genes or deficient for particular viral genes, have been developed. We review here these strategies, the main ranavirus recombinants characterized and their usefulness for in vitro and in vivo studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. Jacques_Robert@urmc.rochester.edu.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, California State University San Marcos, 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd., San Marcos, CA 92096, USA. jjancovich@csusm.edu.
authors.forename: James K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Jancovich
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004266:DNA Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods*; D017995:Ranavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D059386:Reverse Genetics; D014714:Vertebrates; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Amphibians; DNA viruses; Xenopus; iridovirus; reporter virus, recombinant virus