2014 Vol.29(3)

Recent studies have found that viruses can subvert the host actin cytoskeletal system for efficacious infection, and actin dynamics facilitate many stages of viral infection, including virus binding, entry, nuclear localization, genomic transcription and reverse transcription, assembly, and egress/dissemination. In this issue, Spear and Wu have provided a comprehensive review on the close interactions of viruses with cellular F-actin during viral infection. The cover image shows the structured illumination microscopy (SIM) of actin filaments and the nucleus of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells (pseudo-colored in vibrant green), while the superimposed orange dots are added to the actin background to illustrate intracellular subviral particles. (The MDCK actin background image was provided by the courtesy of Dr. Ding Gao, from the Core Facility Center of Wuhan Institute of Virology.)

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Review

Viral exploitation of actin: force-generation and scaffolding functions in viral infection

Mark Spear, Yuntao Wu

2014, 29(3): 139 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3476-0

Received: 20 May 2014 Accepted: 30 May 2014 Published: 06 June 2014
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As a fundamental component of the host cellular cytoskeleton, actin is routinely engaged by infecting viruses. Furthermore, viruses from diverse groups, and infecting diverse hosts, have convergently evolved an array of mechanisms for manipulating the actin cytoskeleton for efficacious infection. An ongoing chorus of research now indicates that the actin cytoskeleton is critical for viral replication at many stages of the viral life cycle, including binding, entry, nuclear localization, genomic transcription and reverse transcription, assembly, and egress/dissemination. Specifi cally, viruses subvert the force-generating and macromolecular scaffolding properties of the actin cytoskeleton to propel viral surfi ng, internalization, and migration within the cell. Additionally, viruses utilize the actin cytoskeleton to support and organize assembly sites, and eject budding virions for cell-to-cell transmission. It is the purpose of this review to provide an overview of current research, focusing on the various mechanisms and themes of virus-mediated actin modulation described therein.
Research Article

Agroinfection of sweet potato by vacuum infiltration of an infectious sweepovirus

Huiping Bi, Peng Zhang

2014, 29(3): 148 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3430-1

Received: 03 January 2014 Accepted: 04 May 2014 Published: 14 May 2014
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Sweepovirus is an important monopartite begomovirus that infects plants of the genus Ipomoea worldwide. Development of artificial infection methods for sweepovirus using agroinoculation is a highly efficient means of studying infectivity in sweet potato. Unlike other begomoviruses, it has proven difficult to infect sweet potato plants with sweepoviruses using infectious clones. A novel sweepovirus, called Sweet potato leaf curl virus-Jiangsu (SPLCV-JS), was recently identified in China. In addition, the infectivity of the SPLCV-JS clone has been demonstrated in Nicotiana benthamiana. Here we describe the agroinfection of the sweet potato cultivar Xushu 22 with the SPLCV-JS infectious clone using vacuum infiltration. Yellowing symptoms were observed in newly emerged leaves. Molecular analysis confirmed successful inoculation by the detection of viral DNA. A synergistic effect of SPLCV-JS and the heterologous betasatellite DNA-β of Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus isolate Y10 (TYLCCNV-Y10) on enhanced symptom severity and viral DNA accumulation was confirmed. The development of a routine agroinoculation system in sweet potato with SPLCV-JS using vacuum infiltration should facilitate the molecular study of sweepovirus in this host and permit the evaluation of virus resistance of sweet potato plants in breeding programs.

Development of a concentration method for detection of tobacco mosaic virus in irrigation water

Wei Chen, Wenting Liu, Honghong Jiao, Huawei Zhang, Julong Cheng, Yunfeng Wu

2014, 29(3): 155 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3461-7

Received: 21 April 2014 Accepted: 10 June 2014 Published: 18 June 2014
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Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) causes significant yield loss in susceptible crops irrigated with contaminated water. However, detection of TMV in water is difficult owing to extremely low concentrations of the virus. Here, we developed a simple method for the detection and quantifi cation of TMV in irrigation water. TMV was reliably detected at concentrations as low as 10 viral copies/μL with real-time PCR. The sensitivity of detection was further improved using polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG6000, MW 6000) to concentrate TMV from water samples. Among the 28 samples from Shaanxi Province examined with our method, 17 were tested positive after virus concentration. Infectivity of TMV in the original water sample as well as after concentration was confi rmed using PCR. The limiting concentration of TMV in water to re-infect plants was determined as 102 viral copies/mL. The method developed in this study offers a novel approach to detect TMV in irrigation water, and may provide an effective tool to control crop infection.

Critical role of Dengue Virus NS1 protein in viral replication

Jingjing Fan, Yi Liu, Zhiming Yuan

2014, 29(3): 162 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3459-1

Received: 11 April 2014 Accepted: 16 May 2014 Published: 26 May 2014
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Dengue virus (DENV) nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) is a highly conserved 46-kDa protein that contains 2 glycosylation sites (Asn-130 and Asn-207) and 12 conserved cysteine (Cys) residues. Here, we performed site-directed mutagenesis to generate systematic mutants of viral strain TSV01. The results of the subsequent analysis showed that an alanine substitution at the second N-linked glycan Asn-207 in NS1 delayed viral RNA synthesis, reduced virus plaque size, and weakened the cytopathic effect. Three mutants at Cys sites (Cys-4, Cys-55, Cys-291) and a C-terminal deletion (ΔC) mutant significantly impaired RNA synthesis, and consequently abolished viral growth, whereas alanine mutations at Asn-130 and Glu-173 resulted in phenotypes that were similar to the wild-type (WT) virus. Further analysis showed that the Asn-207 mutation slightly delayed viral replication. These results suggest that the three conserved disulfide bonds and the second N-linked glycan in NS1 are required for DENV-2 replication.

Conservation of T cell epitopes between seasonal influenza viruses and the novel influenza A H7N9 virus

Huawei Mao, Hui-Ling Yen, Yinping Liu, Yu-Lung Lau, J.S. Malik Peiris, Wenwei Tu

2014, 29(3): 170 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3473-3

Received: 05 May 2014 Accepted: 10 June 2014 Published: 17 June 2014
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A novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus recently emerged in the Yangtze River delta and caused diseases, often severe, in over 130 people. This H7N9 virus appeared to infect humans with greater ease than previous avian influenza virus subtypes such as H5N1 and H9N2. While there are other potential explanations for this large number of human infections with an avian influenza virus, we investigated whether a lack of conserved T-cell epitopes between endemic H1N1 and H3N2 influenza viruses and the novel H7N9 virus contributes to this observation. Here we demonstrate that a number of T cell epitopes are conserved between endemic H1N1 and H3N2 viruses and H7N9 virus. Most of these conserved epitopes are from viral internal proteins. The extent of conservation between endemic human seasonal influenza and avian influenza H7N9 was comparable to that with the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. Thus, the ease of inter-species transmission of H7N9 viruses (compared with avian H5N1 viruses) cannot be attributed to the lack of conservation of such T cell epitopes. On the contrary, our findings predict significant T-cell based cross-reactions in the human population to the novel H7N9 virus. Our findings also have implications for H7N9 virus vaccine design.

Unusual outcome of in utero infection and subsequent postnatal super-infection with different PCV2b strains

Dipongkor Saha, Uladzimir U. Karniychuk, Liping Huang, Marc Geldhof, Merijn Vanhee, David J. Lefebvre, Peter Meerts, Richard Ducatelle, Jan V. Doorsselaere, Hans J. Nauwynck

2014, 29(3): 176 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3431-0

Received: 07 January 2014 Accepted: 05 June 2014 Published: 17 June 2014
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VC2002, isolated from postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS)-affected pig, is a mixture of two porcine circovirus genotype 2b (PCV2b) viruses, K2 and K39. Preliminary experiments disclosed short-term adverse effects of K39, but not K2, on porcine foetuses. These findings led to the hypothesis that infection of immuno-incompetent foetuses with K2 confers a status of immunotolerance, and postnatal super-infection with K39 triggers PMWS. To explore this hypothesis, nine 55-day-old foetuses were inoculated in utero (three with K2-104.3TCID50, three with K39-104.3TCID50 and three with medium), and foeto-pathogenicity examined. At 21 days post-inoculation (dpi), K2 did not induce pathology, whereas pathological effects of K39 were evident. Twenty-four 45-day-old foetuses were subsequently inoculated to examine the long-term effect of K2, including six with K2-high dose-104.3TCID50, six with K2-low dose-102.3TCID50 and 12 mock-inoculated controls. Both doses resulted in five mummified foetuses and one live-born piglet each (69dpi). K2 was recovered from all mummies. K2 and K2-specific antibodies were not detected in serum of the two live-born piglets at birth, indicating full control of K2 infection. The K2-low dose-infected piglet was immunostimulated at day 2, but not the K2-high dose-infected piglet. Both non-stimulated and stimulated K2-infected piglets were super-inoculated with K39 at day 6 or 8 (taken as 0 days post super-inoculation). Low viral replication was observed in the non-stimulated K2-K39 piglet (up to 103.3TCID50/g;identified as K39). In contrast, viral replication was extremely high in the stimulated K2-K39 piglet (up to 105.6TCID50/g) and identified as K2, indicating that K2 infection is controlled during foetal life, but emerges after birth upon immunostimulation. However, none of the piglets showed any signs of PMWS.

Analysis of molecular variation in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in China between 2007 and 2012

Yuhang Cao, Hongsheng Ouyang, Mingjun Zhang, Fuwang Chen, Xin Yang, Daxing Pang, Linzhu Ren

2014, 29(3): 183 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3462-6

Received: 23 April 2014 Accepted: 10 June 2014 Published: 17 June 2014
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In the present study, 89 porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) isolates in China during 2007 to 2012 were randomly selected from the GenBank genetic sequence database. Evolutionary characteristics of these isolates were analyzed based on the sequences of non-structural protein 2 (Nsp2) and glycoprotein 5 (GP5). The genetic variations of the isolates were also compared with six representative strains. The results showed that a high degree of genetic diversity exists among the PRRSV population in China. Highly pathogenic PRRSV isolates, with a discontinuous deletion of a 30 amino acid residue in the Nsp2 region, remained the most dominant virus throughout 2007-2012 in China. Owing to the extensive use of representative vaccine strains, natural recombination events occurred between strains. Three isolates-HH08, DY, and YN-2011-were more closely related to vaccine strains than the other isolates. Both YN-2011 and DY were the evolutionary products of recombination events between strains SP and CH-1R. The results of the present study provide useful information for the epidemiology of PRRSV as well as for vaccine development.
Letter

Detection of viral protein-protein interaction by microplate-format luminescence-based mammalian interactome mapping (LUMIER)

Qiji Deng, Dan Wang, Feng Li

2014, 29(3): 189 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3436-8

Published: 07 May 2014
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Real-time quantitative PCR assay for rapid detection of murine virus contamination in bioproducts

Luling Guo, Zhe Zhang, Rui Gong, Gengfu Xiao

2014, 29(3): 193 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3449-3

Published: 15 May 2014
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Simultaneous detection of duck hepatitis A virus types 1 and 3, and of duck astrovirus type 1, by multiplex RT-PCR

Linlin Chen, Mingjie Ma, Ruihua Zhang, Qian Xu, Xingkui Si, Yu Wang, Zhijing Xie, Shijin Jiang

2014, 29(3): 196 doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3444-8

Published: 22 May 2014
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