Publikationsdatenbank

Effect of insertion and deletion in the Meq Protein encoded by highly oncogenic Marek's Disease Virus on transactivation activity and virulence (2022)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Sato, Jumpei

Murata, Shiro

Yang, Zhiyuan

Kaufer, Benedikt (WE 5)

Fujisawa, Sotaro

Seo, Hikari

Maekawa, Naoya

Okagawa, Tomohiro

Konnai, Satoru

Osterrieder, Klaus (WE 5)

Parcells, Mark

Ohashi, Kazuhiko

Quelle

Viruses

Bandzählung: 14

Heftzählung: 2

Seiten: 382

ISSN: 1999-4915

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35215975/

DOI: 10.3390/v14020382

Pubmed: 35215975

Kontakt

Institut für Virologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51833
virologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Marek's disease virus (MDV) causes malignant lymphoma in chickens (Marek's disease, MD). Although MD is currently controlled by vaccination, MDV strains have continuously increased in virulence over the recent decades. Polymorphisms in Meq, an MDV-encoded oncoprotein that serves as a transcription factor, have been associated with the enhanced virulence of the virus. In addition, insertions and deletions in Meq have been observed in MDV strains of higher virulence, but their contribution to said virulence remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the contribution of an insertion (L-Meq) and a deletion in the Meq gene (S-Meq) to its functions and MDV pathogenicity. Reporter assays revealed that both insertion and deletion enhanced the transactivation potential of Meq. Additionally, we generated RB-1B-based recombinant MDVs (rMDVs) encoding each Meq isoform and analyzed their pathogenic potential. rMDV encoding L-Meq indueced the highest mortality and tumor incidence in infected animals, whereas the rMDV encoding S-Meq exhibited the lowest pathogenicity. Thus, insertion enhanced the transactivation activity of Meq and MDV pathogenicity, whereas deletion reduced pathogenicity despite having increased transactivation activity. These data suggest that other functions of Meq affect MDV virulence. These data improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the evolution of MDV virulence.