Xu Huai, Vega-Rodriguez Widaliz, Van Etten Kathrine, Jarosinski Keith
Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61802, USA.
Pathogens. 2025 May 28;14(6):538. doi: 10.3390/pathogens14060538.
The glycoprotein C (gC) of gallid alphaherpesvirus 2-better known as Marek's disease (MD) virus (MDV)-and gallid alphaherpesvirus 3 is required for horizontal transmission in chickens. Since gC is conserved within the subfamily, we hypothesized that gC was also essential for the horizontal transmission of meleagrid alphaherpesvirus 1 (MeAHV1) or turkey herpesvirus (HVT). To test this hypothesis, we generated a fluorescent protein-tagged clone of recombinant (r)HVT (vHVT47G), removed the open reading frame of HVT gC from the genome (vHΔgC), and rescued the deletion by inserting an HA-epitope tagged HVT gC (vHΔgC-R) to test their ability to transmit in chickens and turkeys. We also tested whether MDV gC could compensate for HVT gC during transmission, where HVT gC was replaced with MDV gC (vH-MDVgC). Although all viruses replicated in chickens, none spread from chicken to chicken. However, when tested in turkeys, all viruses except vHΔgC transmitted from turkey to turkey. Importantly, the rescuent virus (vHΔgC-R) and HVT expressing MDV gC (vH-MDVgC) rescued transmission, showing that HVT gC is required and MDV gC can compensate for HVT gC for turkey-to-turkey transmission. These data confirm the host-specific transmission of HVT in turkeys and suggest that the essential function of alphaherpesvirus gC proteins is conserved. This information can be exploited while generating future vaccines against MD that will affect the poultry industry worldwide.
鸡α疱疹病毒2（更广为人知的是马立克氏病病毒，即MDV）和鸡α疱疹病毒3的糖蛋白C（gC）是鸡水平传播所必需的。由于gC在亚科内是保守的，我们推测gC对火鸡α疱疹病毒1（MeAHV1）或火鸡疱疹病毒（HVT）的水平传播也至关重要。为了验证这一假设，我们构建了一个带有荧光蛋白标签的重组HVT克隆（vHVT47G），从基因组中去除了HVT gC的开放阅读框（vHΔgC），并通过插入一个带有HA表位标签的HVT gC来拯救缺失（vHΔgC-R），以测试它们在鸡和火鸡中的传播能力。我们还测试了在传播过程中MDV gC是否能补偿HVT gC，即将HVT gC替换为MDV gC（vH-MDVgC）。尽管所有病毒都能在鸡体内复制，但没有一种能在鸡与鸡之间传播。然而，在火鸡中进行测试时，除了vHΔgC外，所有病毒都能在火鸡与火鸡之间传播。重要的是，拯救病毒（vHΔgC-R）和表达MDV gC的HVT（vH-MDVgC）恢复了传播能力，表明HVT gC是必需的，并且MDV gC可以补偿HVT gC在火鸡与火鸡之间的传播。这些数据证实了HVT在火鸡中的宿主特异性传播，并表明α疱疹病毒gC蛋白的基本功能是保守的。在研发未来影响全球家禽业的抗MD疫苗时，可以利用这些信息。
