Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 572: Development, Characterization, and Application of Two Reporter-Expressing Recombinant Zika Viruses

Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 572: Development, Characterization, and Application of Two Reporter-Expressing Recombinant Zika Viruses Viruses doi: 10.3390/v12050572 Authors: Sang-Im Yun Byung-Hak Song Michael E. Woolley Jordan C. Frank Justin G. Julander Young-Min Lee Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne transplacentally transmissible flavivirus, is an enveloped virus with an ~10.8 kb plus-strand RNA genome that can cause neurological disease. To facilitate the identification of potential antivirals, we developed two reporter-expressing ZIKVs, each capable of expressing an enhanced green fluorescent protein or an improved luminescent NanoLuc luciferase. First, a full-length functional ZIKV cDNA clone was engineered as a bacterial artificial chromosome, with each reporter gene under the cap-independent translational control of a cardiovirus-derived internal ribosome entry site inserted downstream of the single open reading frame of the viral genome. Two reporter-expressing ZIKVs were then generated by transfection of ZIKV-susceptible BHK-21 cells with infectious RNAs derived by in vitro run-off transcription from the respective cDNAs. As compared to the parental virus, the two reporter-expressing ZIKVs grew to lower titers with slower growth kinetics and formed smaller foci; however, they displayed a genome-wide viral protein expression profile identical to that of the parental virus, except for two previously unrecognized larger forms of the C and NS1 proteins. We ...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research