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Title: PATHOGENESIS AND MUTAGENESIS STUDIES ON MAREK'S DISEASE VIRUS ENCODED INTERLEUKIN-8 LIKE GENE (VIL8)

Author
item CUI, XIAOPING - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Lee, Lucy
item REED, WILLIE - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item REDDY, SANJAY - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: World Veterinary Poultry Association Congress Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/19/2003
Publication Date: 7/31/2003
Citation: Cui, X., Lee, L.F., Reed, W.M., Reddy, S.M. 2003. Pathogenesis and mutagenesis studies on marek's disease virus encoded interleukin-8 like gene (vil8). World Veterinary Poultry Association Congress Proceedings. p. 143.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Marek's disease virus (MDV) encodes a chemokine like gene designated as vIL8. To characterize the function of the vIL8 gene in MDV infection, replication and transformation, we constructed two rescued Marek's disease viruses by the recA assisted restriction endonuclease cleavage method. The first rescued mutant virus rMD5/vIL8 had the two copies of vIL8 gene knocked out. In vitro characterization confirmed the mutagenesis of mutant viruses. In vivo pathogenesis studies showed that deletion of vIL8 impaired the early cytolytic infection of the virus, a significant lower number of the inoculated birds had gross lesions compared to the parental virus inoculated birds. This indicates that mutant virus rMD5/vIL8 has a reduced pathogenicity and virulence and the virus replication in feather follicle epithelium is not compromised. We also constructed a revertant virus that restored the vIL8 gene in the genome by the homologous recombination technique. The restoration of virulence in the revertant virus would be a confirmation that the pathogenic changes in the rMD5/vIL8 virus were caused by the deletion of the vIL8 gene.