Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, USA.
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, Department of Population Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Viruses. 2021 Jul 21;13(8):1419. doi: 10.3390/v13081419.
Marek's disease (MD) in chickens is caused by 2, better known as MD herpesvirus (MDV). Current vaccines do not block interindividual spread from chicken-to-chicken, therefore, understanding MDV interindividual spread provides important information for the development of potential therapies to protect against MD, while also providing a natural host to study herpesvirus dissemination. It has long been thought that glycoprotein C (gC) of alphaherpesviruses evolved with their host based on their ability to bind and inhibit complement in a species-selective manner. Here, we tested the functional importance of gC during interindividual spread and host specificity using the natural model system of MDV in chickens through classical compensation experiments. By exchanging MDV gC with another chicken alphaherpesvirus ( 1 or infectious laryngotracheitis virus; ILTV) gC, we determined that ILTV gC could not compensate for MDV gC during interindividual spread. In contrast, exchanging turkey herpesvirus ( 1 or HVT) gC could compensate for chicken MDV gC. Both ILTV and MDV are ; however, ILTV is a member of the genus, while MDV is classified as a along with HVT. These results suggest that gC is functionally conserved based on the virus genera ( vs. ) and not the host ( vs. ).
鸡马立克氏病（MD）由 2 引起，更确切地说是由 MD 疱疹病毒（MDV）引起。目前的疫苗并不能阻止鸡与鸡之间的个体间传播，因此，了解 MDV 的个体间传播为开发潜在的治疗方法以预防 MD 提供了重要信息，同时也为研究疱疹病毒传播提供了天然宿主。长期以来，人们一直认为α疱疹病毒的糖蛋白 C（gC）是根据其结合和以物种选择性方式抑制补体的能力与宿主共同进化的。在这里，我们通过经典的补偿实验，使用 MDV 在鸡中的天然模型系统，测试了 gC 在个体间传播和宿主特异性方面的功能重要性。通过用另一种鸡α疱疹病毒（1 或传染性喉气管炎病毒；ILTV）的 gC 交换 MDV 的 gC，我们确定在个体间传播期间，ILTV 的 gC 不能补偿 MDV 的 gC。相比之下，交换火鸡疱疹病毒（1 或 HVT）的 gC 可以补偿鸡 MDV 的 gC。ILTV 和 MDV 都是 ，但是，ILTV 属于 属，而 MDV 与 HVT 一起归类为 。这些结果表明，gC 的功能是基于病毒属（ 与 ）而不是宿主（ 与 ）保守的。
