Rabies virus (RV) glycoprotein expression levels are not critical for pathogenicity of RV.

ABSTRACT: Previous comparisons of different rabies virus (RV) strains suggested an inverse relationship between pathogenicity and the amount of glycoprotein produced in infected cells. In order to provide more insight into this relationship, we pursued an experimental approach that allowed us to alter the glycoprotein expression level without altering the glycoprotein sequence, thereby eliminating the contribution of amino acid changes to differences in viral virulence. To this end, we constructed an infectious clone of the highly pathogenic rabies virus strain CVS-N2c and replaced its cognate glycoprotein gene with synthetic versions in which silent mutations were introduced to replace wild-type codons with the most or least frequently used synonymous codons. A recombinant N2c variant containing th

SUBMITTER: Wirblich C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3020019 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature