In vitro characterization of an equine herpesvirus type 3 devoid of glycoprotein G gene product

ARMANDO DAMIANI

Workshop; Fourth Havemeyer workshop on equine herpesviruses; 2018

Havemeyer Fundation

Chemokines are essential elements of the antiviral response. Herpesviruses express proteins that interfere with chemokine function playing relevant roles in viral cycle, immune evasion and pathogenesis. Glycoprotein G (gG) of herpesviruses are shown to bind to a variety of different chemokines and as such might be involved in immune modulation. The equine herpesvirus type 3 (EHV-3) ORF 70 gene encodes glycoprotein G (gG), which is conserved in the majority of alphaherpesviruses. In order to determine the role of EHV-3 gG in the viral infection cycle, a gG minus EHV-3 mutant and its gG-positive revertant were constructed and their growth characteristics in equine dermal (ED) fibroblast cell line cells were compared. The plaque size and the growth kinetics of the gG minus mutant were similar to the revertant virus indicating that EHV-3 gG had not a role for an efficient propagation in vitro. To identify the gG gene product, an N-terminal gG tagged version of EHV-3 is under construction.