Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene

Vuono, Elizabeth; Ramirez-Medina, Elizabeth; Pruitt, Sarah; Rai, Ayushi; Silva, Ediane; Espinoza, Nallely; Zhu, James; Velazquez-Salinas, Lauro; Gladue, Douglas P.; Borca, Manuel V.

doi:10.3390/v13010039

Open AccessBrief Report

Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene

by

Elizabeth Vuono

^1,2,†,

Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina

^1,3,†,

Sarah Pruitt

¹,

Ayushi Rai

^1,4,

Ediane Silva

^1,5,

Nallely Espinoza

¹,

James Zhu

¹,

Lauro Velazquez-Salinas

^1,5,

Douglas P. Gladue

^1,*

and

Manuel V. Borca

^1,*

¹

Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Greenport, NY 11944, USA

²

Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box 6100, Mississippi, MS 39762, USA

³

Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Mansfield, CT 06269, USA

⁴

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA

⁵

Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Authors contributed equally to the work.

Viruses 2021, 13(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010039

Submission received: 4 December 2020 / Revised: 20 December 2020 / Accepted: 20 December 2020 / Published: 29 December 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Endemic and Emerging Swine Viruses 2021)

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Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of African swine fever, a disease currently causing significant economic losses in Europe and Asia. Specifically, the highly virulent ASFV strain Georgia 2010 (ASFV-G) is producing disease outbreaks in this large geographical region. The ASFV genome encodes for over 150 genes, most of which are still not experimentally characterized. I8L is a highly conserved gene that has not been studied beyond its initial description as a virus ORF. Transcriptional analysis of swine macrophages infected with ASFV-G demonstrated that the I8L gene is transcribed early during the virus replication cycle. To assess the importance of I8L during ASFV-G replication in vitro and in vivo, as well as its role in virus virulence in domestic swine, we developed a recombinant virus lacking the I8L gene (ASFV-G-ΔI8L). Replication of ASFV-G-ΔI8L was similar to parental ASFV-G replication in primary swine macrophage cultures, suggesting that the I8L gene is not essential for ASFV-G replication in vitro. Similarly, replication of ASFV-G-ΔI8L in swine intramuscularly inoculated with 10² HAD₅₀ displayed replication kinetics similar to ASFV-G. In addition, animals inoculated with ASFV-G-ΔI8L presented with a clinical disease indistinguishable from that induced by the same dose of the virulent parental ASFV-G isolate. We conclude that deletion of the I8L gene from ASFV-G does not affect virus replication in vitro or in vivo, nor changes the disease outcome in swine.

Keywords: ASF; ASFV; African swine fever; I8L gene; virus virulence; recombinant ASFV

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MDPI and ACS Style

Vuono, E.; Ramirez-Medina, E.; Pruitt, S.; Rai, A.; Silva, E.; Espinoza, N.; Zhu, J.; Velazquez-Salinas, L.; Gladue, D.P.; Borca, M.V. Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene. Viruses 2021, 13, 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010039

AMA Style

Vuono E, Ramirez-Medina E, Pruitt S, Rai A, Silva E, Espinoza N, Zhu J, Velazquez-Salinas L, Gladue DP, Borca MV. Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene. Viruses. 2021; 13(1):39. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010039

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vuono, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina, Sarah Pruitt, Ayushi Rai, Ediane Silva, Nallely Espinoza, James Zhu, Lauro Velazquez-Salinas, Douglas P. Gladue, and Manuel V. Borca. 2021. "Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene" Viruses 13, no. 1: 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010039

APA Style

Vuono, E., Ramirez-Medina, E., Pruitt, S., Rai, A., Silva, E., Espinoza, N., Zhu, J., Velazquez-Salinas, L., Gladue, D. P., & Borca, M. V. (2021). Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene. Viruses, 13(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13010039

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Evaluation in Swine of a Recombinant Georgia 2010 African Swine Fever Virus Lacking the I8L Gene

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