Section of Veterinary Clinical Microbiology, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Section for Veterinary Virology, Department of Virus & Microbiological Special Diagnostics, Statens Serum Institut, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Viruses. 2021 Nov 22;13(11):2333. doi: 10.3390/v13112333.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) has become widespread in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, thereby causing extensive economic losses. The viral genome includes nearly 200 genes, but their expression within infected pigs has not been well characterized previously. In this study, four pigs were infected with a genotype II strain (ASFV POL/2015/Podlaskie); blood samples were collected before inoculation and at both 3 and 6 days later. During this period, a range of clinical signs of infection became apparent in the pigs. From the blood, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated. The transcription of the ASFV genes was determined using RNAseq on poly(A)+ mRNAs isolated from these cells. Only very low levels of virus transcription were detected in the PBMCs at 3 days post-inoculation (dpi) but, at 6 dpi, extensive transcription was apparent. This was co-incident with a large increase in the level of ASFV DNA within these cells. The pattern of the virus gene expression was very reproducible between the individual pigs. Many highly expressed genes have undefined roles. Surprisingly, some genes with key roles in virus replication were expressed at only low levels. As the functions of individual genes are identified, information about their expression becomes important for understanding their contribution to virus biology.
非洲猪瘟病毒（ASFV）已在欧洲、亚洲和其他地区广泛传播，从而造成了广泛的经济损失。该病毒基因组包括近 200 个基因，但之前对其在感染猪体内的表达情况尚未进行很好的描述。在本研究中，4 头猪感染了 II 型（ASFV POL/2015/Podlaskie）毒株；在接种前以及接种后 3 天和 6 天分别采集血液样本。在此期间，猪身上出现了一系列感染的临床症状。从血液中分离出外周血单核细胞（PBMC）。使用 RNAseq 技术对从这些细胞中分离出的 poly(A)+ mRNA 进行 ASFV 基因转录检测。在接种后 3 天（dpi），PBMC 中检测到的病毒转录水平非常低，但在 6 dpi 时，明显出现了广泛的转录。这与这些细胞内 ASFV DNA 水平的大幅增加相一致。病毒基因表达的模式在个体猪之间非常可重复。许多高表达基因的功能尚未确定。令人惊讶的是，一些在病毒复制中起关键作用的基因的表达水平很低。随着对单个基因功能的鉴定，有关其表达的信息对于了解其对病毒生物学的贡献变得很重要。
