Newcastle disease virus (NDV) marker vaccine: an immunodominant epitope on the nucleoprotein gene of NDV can be deleted or replaced by a foreign epitope.

ABSTRACT: The nucleoprotein (NP) of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) functions primarily to encapsidate the virus genome for the purpose of RNA transcription, replication, and packaging. This conserved multifunctional protein is also efficient in inducing NDV-specific antibody in chickens. Here, we localized a conserved B-cell immunodominant epitope (IDE) spanning residues 447 to 455 and successfully generated a recombinant NDV lacking the IDE by reverse genetics. Despite deletion of NP residues 443 to 460 encompassing the NP-IDE, the mutant NDV propagated in embryonated specific-pathogen-free chicken eggs to a level comparable to that of the parent virus. In addition, a B-cell epitope of the S2 glycoprotein of murine hepatitis virus (MHV) was inserted in-frame to replace the NP-IDE. Recombinant viruse

SUBMITTER: Mebatsion T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC136582 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature