Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is an emerging swine coronavirus that causes severe diarrhea, resulting in high mortality in neonatal piglets. Despite widespread outbreaks in many countries, no effective PDCoV vaccines are currently available. Here, we generated, for the first time, a full-length i...

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Main Authors: Mengjia Zhang, Wan Li, Peng Zhou, Dejian Liu, Rui Luo, Anan Jongkaewwattana, Qigai He
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-01-01
Series:Emerging Microbes and Infections
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/22221751.2019.1701391
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author Mengjia Zhang
Wan Li
Peng Zhou
Dejian Liu
Rui Luo
Anan Jongkaewwattana
Qigai He
author_facet Mengjia Zhang
Wan Li
Peng Zhou
Dejian Liu
Rui Luo
Anan Jongkaewwattana
Qigai He
author_sort Mengjia Zhang
collection DOAJ
description Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is an emerging swine coronavirus that causes severe diarrhea, resulting in high mortality in neonatal piglets. Despite widespread outbreaks in many countries, no effective PDCoV vaccines are currently available. Here, we generated, for the first time, a full-length infectious cDNA clone of PDCoV. We further manipulated the infectious clone by replacing the NS6 gene with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) to generate rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP; likewise, rPDCoV-ΔNS7 was constructed by removing the ATG start codons of the NS7 gene. Growth kinetics studies suggest that rPDCoV-ΔNS7 could replicate similarly to that of the wild-type PDCoV, whereas rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP exhibited a substantial reduction of viral titer in vitro and in vivo. Piglets inoculated with rPDCoV-ΔNS7 or wild-type PDCoV showed similar diarrheic scores and pathological injury. In contrast, rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP-infected piglets did not show any clinical signs, indicating that the NS6 protein is an important virulence factor of PDCoV and that the NS6-deficient mutant virus might be a promising live-attenuated vaccine candidate. Taken together, the reverse genetics platform described here not only provides more insights into the role of PDCoV accessory proteins in viral replication and pathogenesis, but also allows the development of novel vaccines against PDCoV infection.
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spelling doaj-art-b464b1b78c6e49d4b1d702defe7dc2f42025-08-20T03:08:31ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEmerging Microbes and Infections2222-17512020-01-0191203110.1080/22221751.2019.1701391Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine designMengjia Zhang0Wan Li1Peng Zhou2Dejian Liu3Rui Luo4Anan Jongkaewwattana5Qigai He6State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaVirology and Cell Technology Laboratory, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Pathum Thani, ThailandState Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of ChinaPorcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is an emerging swine coronavirus that causes severe diarrhea, resulting in high mortality in neonatal piglets. Despite widespread outbreaks in many countries, no effective PDCoV vaccines are currently available. Here, we generated, for the first time, a full-length infectious cDNA clone of PDCoV. We further manipulated the infectious clone by replacing the NS6 gene with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) to generate rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP; likewise, rPDCoV-ΔNS7 was constructed by removing the ATG start codons of the NS7 gene. Growth kinetics studies suggest that rPDCoV-ΔNS7 could replicate similarly to that of the wild-type PDCoV, whereas rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP exhibited a substantial reduction of viral titer in vitro and in vivo. Piglets inoculated with rPDCoV-ΔNS7 or wild-type PDCoV showed similar diarrheic scores and pathological injury. In contrast, rPDCoV-ΔNS6-GFP-infected piglets did not show any clinical signs, indicating that the NS6 protein is an important virulence factor of PDCoV and that the NS6-deficient mutant virus might be a promising live-attenuated vaccine candidate. Taken together, the reverse genetics platform described here not only provides more insights into the role of PDCoV accessory proteins in viral replication and pathogenesis, but also allows the development of novel vaccines against PDCoV infection.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/22221751.2019.1701391PDCoVinfectous cloneaccessory proteinpathogenesisvaccine
spellingShingle Mengjia Zhang
Wan Li
Peng Zhou
Dejian Liu
Rui Luo
Anan Jongkaewwattana
Qigai He
Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
Emerging Microbes and Infections
PDCoV
infectous clone
accessory protein
pathogenesis
vaccine
title Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
title_full Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
title_fullStr Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
title_full_unstemmed Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
title_short Genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into NS6 and NS7 functions: a novel strategy for vaccine design
title_sort genetic manipulation of porcine deltacoronavirus reveals insights into ns6 and ns7 functions a novel strategy for vaccine design
topic PDCoV
infectous clone
accessory protein
pathogenesis
vaccine
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/22221751.2019.1701391
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