title: Singapore grouper iridovirus protein VP088 is essential for viral infectivity.
abstract: Viral infection is a great challenge in healthcare and agriculture. The Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV) is highly infectious to numerous marine fishes and increasingly threatens mariculture and wildlife conservation. SGIV intervention is not available because little is known about key players and their precise roles in SGVI infection. Here we report the precise role of VP088 as a key player in SGIV infection. VP088 was verified as an envelope protein encoded by late gene orf088. We show that SGIV could be neutralized with an antibody against VP088. Depletion or deletion of VP088 significantly suppresses SGIV infection without altering viral gene expression and host responses. By precisely quantifying the genome copy numbers of host cells and virions, we reveal that VP088 deletion dramatically reduces SGIV infectivity through inhibiting virus entry without altering viral pathogenicity, genome stability and replication and progeny virus release. These results pinpoint that VP088 is a key player in SGIV entry and represents an ideal target for SGIV intervention.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors: Yongming
authors: Y
authors: Yuan
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors: Yunzhi
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors: Qizhi
authors: Q
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors: Feng
authors: F
authors: Zhu
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors: Yunhan
authors: Y
authors: Hong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology; D017994:Iridovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D009990:Oryzias; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins