Repair of an Attenuated Low-Passage Murine Cytomegalovirus Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Identifies a Novel Spliced Gene Essential for Salivary Gland Tropism.

ABSTRACT: The cloning of herpesviruses as bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) has revolutionized the study of herpesvirus biology, allowing rapid and precise manipulation of viral genomes. Several clinical strains of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) have been cloned as BACs; however, no low-passage strains of murine CMV (MCMV), which provide a model mimicking these isolates, have been cloned. Here, the low-passage G4 strain of was BAC cloned. G4 carries an m157 gene that does not ligate the natural killer (NK) cell-activating receptor, Ly49H, meaning that unlike laboratory strains of MCMV, this virus replicates well in C57BL/6 mice. This BAC clone exhibited normal replication during acute infection in the spleen and liver but was attenuated for salivary gland tropism. Next-generation sequencing reve

SUBMITTER: Redwood AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7592224 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature