Virulence of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 does not always correlate with the cleavability of its fusion protein

J.C.F.M. Dortmans, G. Koch, P.J.M. Rottier, B.P.H. Peeters

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

61 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Some pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) strains exhibit low virulence in chickens, despite their fusion (F) protein's multi-basic cleavage site. To elucidate the molecular basis of the low pathogenicity of these strains, we constructed an infectious full-length cDNA clone of PPMV-1 strain AV324. This strain is non-virulent for chickens, although its F protein contains the typical virulence motif (RRKKRF117)-R-112. By using reverse genetics, we exchanged the F genes of AV324 and a virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain (Herts) and evaluated the recovered chimeric viruses for their pathogenicity in 1-day-old chickens and in embryonated eggs. Our results show that the F protein of AV324, and probably those of similar PPMV-1 strains, are functionally not different from those of virulent NDV strains and that the difference in pathogenicity must be determined by other factors.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2746-2750
JournalJournal of General Virology
Volume90
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Keywords

  • newcastle-disease virus
  • complete nucleotide-sequence
  • pathogenicity
  • expression
  • cleavage

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