Cloning of a very virulent plus, 686 strain of Marek's disease virus as a bacterial artificial chromosome

Phenotypic Characterization of Recombinant Marek's Disease Virus in Live Birds Validates Polymorphisms Associated with Virulence

Marek's disease (MD) is a highly infectious lymphoproliferative disease in chickens with a significant economic impact. Mardivirus gallidalpha 2, also known as Marek's disease virus (MDV), is the causative pathogen and has been categorized based on its virulence rank into four pathotypes: mild (m), virulent (v), very virulent (vv), and very virulent plus (vv+). A prior comparative genomics study suggested that several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genes in the MDV genome are associated with virulence, including nonsynonymous (ns) SNPs in eight open reading frames (ORF): UL22, UL36, UL37, UL41, UL43, R-LORF8, R-LORF7, and ICP4. To validate the contribution of these nsSNPs to virulence, the vv+MDV strain 686 genome was modified by replacing nucleotides with those observed in the vMDV strains. Pathogenicity studies indicated that these substitutions reduced the MD incidence and increased the survival of challenged birds. Furthermore, using the best-fit pathotyping method to rank the virulence, the modified vv+MDV 686 viruses resulted in a pathotype similar to the vvMDV Md5 strain. Thus, these results support our hypothesis that SNPs in one or more of these ORFs are associated with virulence but, as a group, are not sufficient to result in a vMDV pathotype, suggesting that there are additional variants in the MDV genome associated with virulence, which is not surprising given this complex phenotype and our previous finding of additional variants and SNPs associated with virulence.

The role of Meq-vIL8 in regulating Marek's disease virus pathogenesis

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a highly cell-associated oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes T cell lymphoma in chickens. MDV-encoded Meq and vIL8 proteins play important roles in transformation and early cytolytic infection, respectively. Previous studies identified a spliced transcript, meq-vIL8, formed by alternative splicing of meq and vIL8 genes in MDV lymphoblastoid tumour cells. To determine the role of Meq-vIL8 in MDV pathogenesis, we generated a recombinant MDV (MDV-meqΔSD) by mutating the splice donor site in the meq gene to abrogate the expression of Meq-vIL8. As expected, our results show that MDV-meqΔSD virus grows similarly to the parental and revertant viruses in cell culture, suggesting that Meq-vIL8 is dispensable for MDV growth in vitro. We further characterized the pathogenic properties of MDV-meqΔSD virus in chickens. Our results show that lack of Meq-vIL8 did not affect virus replication during the early cytolytic phase, as determined by immunohistochemistry analysis and/or viral genome copy number, but significantly enhanced viral DNA load in the late phase of infection in the spleen and brain of infected chickens. In addition, we observed that abrogation of Meq-vIL8 expression reduced the mean death time and increased the prevalence of persistent neurological disease, common features of highly virulent strains of MDV, in inoculated chickens. In conclusion, our study shows that Meq-vIL8 is an important virulence factor of MDV.

Methods for the Manipulation of Herpesvirus Genome and the Application to Marek's Disease Virus Research

Herpesviruses are a group of double-strand DNA viruses that infect a wide range of hosts, including humans and animals. In the past decades, numerous methods have been developed to manipulate herpesviruses genomes, from the introduction of random mutations to specific genome editing. The development of genome manipulation methods has largely advanced the study of viral genes function, contributing not only to the understanding of herpesvirus biology and pathogenesis, but also the generation of novel vaccines and therapies to control and treat diseases. In this review, we summarize the major methods of herpesvirus genome manipulation with emphasis in their application to Marek’s disease virus research.

Manipulation of Promyelocytic Leukemia Protein Nuclear Bodies by Marek's Disease Virus Encoded US3 Protein Kinase

Promyelocytic leukemia protein nuclear bodies (PML-NBs) are dynamic nuclear structures, shown to be important for herpesvirus replication; however, their role in regulating Marek’s disease virus (MDV) infection has not been studied. MDV is an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes lymphoproliferative disease in chickens. MDV encodes a US3 serine/threonine protein kinase that is important for MDV replication and gene expression. In this study, we studied the role of MDV US3 in regulating PML-NBs. Using an immunofluorescence assay, we found that MDV US3 disrupts PML and SP100 in a kinase dependent manner. In addition, treatment with MG-132 (a proteasome inhibitor) could partially restore the levels of PML and SP100, suggesting that a cellular proteasome dependent degradation pathway is involved in MDV US3 induced disruption of PML and SP100. These findings provide the first evidence for the interplay between MDV proteins and PML-NBs.

Marek's disease virus US3 protein kinase phosphorylates chicken HDAC 1 and 2 and regulates viral replication and pathogenesis

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a potent oncogenic alphaherpesvirus that elicits a rapid onset of malignant T-cell lymphomas in chickens. Three MDV types, including GaHV-2 (MDV-1), GaHV-3 (MDV-2) and MeHV-1 (HVT), have been identified and all encode a U_S3 protein kinase. MDV-1 U_S3 is important for efficient virus growth in vitro. To study the role of U_S3 in MDV replication and pathogenicity, we generated an MDV-1 U_S3-null virus and chimeric viruses by replacing MDV-1 U_S3 with MDV-2 or HVT U_S3. Using MD as a natural virus-host model, we showed that both MDV-2 and HVT U_S3 partially rescued the growth deficiency of MDV-1 U_S3-null virus. In addition, deletion of MDV-1 U_S3 attenuated the virus resulting in higher survival rate and lower MDV specific tumor incidence, which could be partially compensated by MDV-2 and HVT U_S3. We also identified chicken histone deacetylase 1 (chHDAC1) as a common U_S3 substrate for all three MDV types while only U_S3 of MDV-1 and MDV-2 phosphorylate chHDAC2. We further determined that U_S3 of MDV-1 and HVT phosphorylate chHDAC1 at serine 406 (S406), while MDV-2 U_S3 phosphorylates S406, S410, and S415. In addition, MDV-1 U_S3 phosphorylates chHDAC2 at S407, while MDV-2 U_S3 targets S407 and S411. Furthermore, biochemical studies show that MDV U_S3 mediated phosphorylation of chHDAC1 and 2 affect their stability, transcriptional regulation activity, and interaction network. Using a class I HDAC specific inhibitor, we showed that MDV U_S3 mediated phosphorylation of chHDAC1 and 2 is involved in regulation of virus replication. Overall, we identified novel substrates for MDV U_S3 and characterized the role of MDV U_S3 in MDV pathogenesis.

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a highly contagious and oncogenic avian alphaherpesvirus that causes T-cell lymphomas in chickens. Alphaherpesviruses encoded U_S3 is a multifunctional protein kinase involved in viral replication, apoptosis resistance, and cell-to-cell spread. In this study, we evaluated the importance of MDV U_S3 in regulating MDV replication and pathogenesis in chickens. Our results provide first evidence that MDV U_S3 protein kinase is involved in the replication and pathogenicity of MDV in its natural host. We also identified chicken histone deacetylase 1 and 2 (chHDAC1 and 2) as novel substrates of U_S3 for MDV and characterized the potential impacts of MDV U_S3 induced phosphorylation in their protein stability, transcriptional regulation and protein interactions; to our knowledge, this is the first comparative study of the functions of U_S3 from all three MDV types. This is an important finding towards a better understanding of the functions of alphaherpesviruses encoded U_S3 protein kinase.

A Novel Effective and Safe Vaccine for Prevention of Marek's Disease Caused by Infection with a Very Virulent Plus (vv+) Marek's Disease Virus

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a highly contagious alphaherpesvirus that causes rapid onset lymphoma in chickens. Marek’s disease (MD) is effectively controlled using vaccination; however, MDV continues to break through vaccinal immunity, due to the emergence of highly virulent field strains. Earlier studies revealed that deletion of the meq gene from MDV resulted in an attenuated virus that protects against MD in chickens challenged with highly virulent field strains. However, the meq deleted virus retains the ability to induce significant lymphoid organ atrophy. In a different study, we found that the deletion of the vIL8 gene resulted in the loss of lymphoid organ atrophy in inoculated chickens. Here, we describe the generation of a recombinant MDV from which both meq and vIL8 genes were deleted. In vitro studies revealed that the meq and vIL8 double deletion virus replicated at levels similar to the parental very virulent plus (vv+) virus. In addition, in vivo studies showed that the double deletion mutant virus (686BAC-ΔMeqΔvIL8) conferred protection comparable to CVI988, a commercial vaccine strain, when challenged with a vv+ MDV virus, and significantly reduced lymphoid organ atrophy, when compared to meq null virus, in chickens. In conclusion, our study describes the development of a safe and effective vaccine candidate for prevention of MD in chickens.

UL28 and UL33 homologs of Marek's disease virus terminase complex involved in the regulation of cleavage and packaging of viral DNA are indispensable for replication in cultured cells

Processing and packaging of herpesvirus genomic DNA is regulated by a packaging-associated terminase complex comprising of viral proteins pUL15, pUL28 and pUL33. Marek’s disease virus (MDV) homologs UL28 and UL33 showed conserved functional features with high sequence identity with the corresponding Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) homologs. As part of the investigations into the role of the UL28 and UL33 homologs of oncogenic MDV for DNA packaging and replication in cultured cells, we generated MDV mutant clones deficient in UL28 or UL33 of full-length MDV genomes. Transfection of UL28- or UL33-deleted BAC DNA into chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) did not result either in the production of visible virus plaques, or detectable single cell infection after passaging onto fresh CEF cells. However, typical MDV plaques were detectable in CEF transfected with the DNA of revertant mutants where the deleted genes were precisely reinserted. Moreover, the replication defect of the UL28-deficient mutant was completely restored when fragment encoding the full UL28 gene was co-transfected into CEF cells. Viruses recovered from the revertant construct, as well as by the UL28 co-transfection, showed replication ability comparable with parental virus. Furthermore, the transmission electron microscopy study indicated that immature capsids were assembled without the UL28 expression, but with the loss of infectivity. Importantly, predicted three-dimensional structures of UL28 between MDV and HSV-1 suggests conserved function in virus replication. For the first time, these results revealed that both UL28 and UL33 are essential for MDV replication through regulating DNA cleavage and packaging.

Marek's disease virus Meq oncoprotein interacts with chicken HDAC 1 and 2 and mediates their degradation via proteasome dependent pathway

Marek's disease virus (MDV) encodes a basic-leucine zipper (BZIP) protein, Meq, which is considered the major MDV oncoprotein. It has been reported that the oncogenicity of Meq is associated with its interaction with C-terminal binding protein 1 (CtBP), which is also an interaction partner of Epstein-Barr virus encoded EBNA3A and EBNA3C oncoproteins. Since both EBNA3C and CtBP interact with histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) and HDAC2, we examined whether Meq shares this interaction with chicken HDAC1 (chHDAC1) and chHDAC2. Using confocal microscopy analysis, we show that Meq co-localizes with chHDAC1 and chHDAC2 in the nuclei of MDV lymphoblastoid tumor cells. In addition, immunoprecipitation assays demonstrate that Meq interacts with chHDAC1 and chHDAC2 in transfected cells and MDV lymphoblastoid tumor cells. Using deletion mutants, interaction domains were mapped to the N-terminal dimerization domain of chHDAC1 and chHDAC2, and the BZIP domain of Meq. Our results further demonstrate that this interaction mediates the degradation of chHDAC1 and chHDAC2 via the proteasome dependent pathway. In addition, our results show that Meq also induces the reduction of global ubiquitinated proteins through a proteasome dependent pathway. In conclusion, our results provide evidence that Meq interacts with chHDAC1 and chHDAC2, and induces their proteasome dependent degradation.

Marek's Disease Virus Cluster 3 miRNAs Restrict Virus' Early Cytolytic Replication and Pathogenesis

Herpesvirus-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) have been discovered in infected cells; however, lack of a suitable animal model has hampered functional analyses of viral miRNAs in vivo. Marek’s disease virus (MDV) (Gallid alphaherpesvirus 2, GaHV-2) genome contains 14 miRNA precursors, which encode 26 mature miRNAs, grouped into three clusters. In this study, the role of MDV-encoded cluster 3 miRNAs, also known as mdv1-miR-M8-M10, in pathogenesis was evaluated in chickens, the natural host of MDV. Our results show that deletion of cluster 3 miRNAs did not affect virus replication and plaque size in cell culture, but increased early cytolytic replication of MDV in chickens. We also observed that deletion of cluster 3 miRNAs resulted in significantly higher virus reactivation from peripheral blood lymphocytes. In addition, pathogenesis studies showed that deletion of cluster 3 miRNAs resulted in more severe atrophy of lymphoid organs and reduced mean death time, but did not affect the incidence of MDV-associated visceral tumors. We confirmed these results by generating a cluster 3 miRNA revertant virus in which the parental MDV phenotype was restored. To the best of our knowledge, our study provides the first evidence that MDV cluster 3 miRNAs play an important role in modulating MDV pathogenesis.

Deletion of LORF9 but not LORF10 attenuates Marek's disease virus pathogenesis

Marek's disease virus (MDV) genome contains a number of uncharacterized long open reading frames (LORF) and their role in viral pathogenesis has not been fully investigated. Among them, LORF9 (MDV069) and LORF10 (MDV071) are locate at the right terminus of the MDV genome unique long region (U_L). To investigate their role in MDV pathogenesis, we generated LORF9 or LORF10 deletion and revertant viruses. In vitro growth kinetics results show that both LORF9 and LORF10 are not essential for virus growth in cell culture. However, LORF9, but not LORF10, is involved in MDV early cytolytic replication in vivo, as evidenced by limited viral antigen expression in lymphoid organs of LORF9 deletion virus inoculated chickens. MDV genome copy number data further confirmed that LORF9 is important for MDV replication in spleen during early cytolytic phase. Deletion of LORF9 also partially impairs the replication of MDV in feather follicle epithelium (FFE); however, it can still establish latency and transformation. In addition, pathogenesis studies show that deletion of LORF9, but not LORF10, result in significant reduction of MDV induced mortality and slightly reduce MDV associated tumors of inoculated chickens. Importantly, we confirmed these results with the generation of LORF9 and LORF10 revertant viruses that fully restore the phenotypes of parental MDV. In conclusion, our results show that deletion of LORF9, but not LORF10, significantly impair viral replication in lymphoid organs during early cytolytic phase and attenuate Marek's disease virus pathogenesis.

Highly virulent Marek's disease virus strains affect T lymphocyte function and viability of splenocytes in commercial meat-type chickens

In previous studies, we have demonstrated that very virulent plus Marek's disease viruses (vv+MDV) are highly immunosuppressive in commercial meat-type chickens. The specific objectives of this work were to evaluate if vv+MDV immunosuppression (MDV-IS) is induced by reduction of lymphocyte responsiveness and/or viability. Three experiments were conducted to (i) compare vv+MDV 686 with a partially attenuated 686-BAC; (ii) compare vv+MDV strains (648A and 686) with vMDV (GA) and vvMDV (Md5); and (iii) compare chickens vaccinated with Md5-BACΔMEQ and with CVI988 + HVT. In each experiment, spleens were collected at 28-30 days post infection and lymphocytes were isolated and investigated in three ways: their proliferative response to Concanavalin A (ConA) was analysed by MTT proliferation assay; cell death, and expression of CD45 and MHC-I was studied by flow cytometry; and MHC-IA and β-2 microglobulin (B2M) expression was evaluated by real time RT-PCR. Splenocytes of chickens inoculated with vv+MDV were severely impaired to proliferate when exposed to ConA. Furthermore, vv+MDV induced severe splenocyte death that did not occur after infection with v or vvMDV strains. Vaccination with CVI988 + HVT, and at less level with Md5-BACΔMEQ reduced these negative effects. This is in contrast to our previous results in which Md5-BACΔMEQ but not CVI988 + HVT protected against MDV-IS suggesting that although cell death and decrease lymphocyte function seem to be related to MDV virulence and certainly will be associated with immunosuppression, they might not fully explain the previously reported MDV-IS. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS vv+MDV induces extensive death in splenocytes in meat-type chickens 28-30 dpi. vv+MDV impairs lymphocyte function in meat-type chickens 28-30 dpi. Vaccination protects against splenocyte death and reduced lymphocyte function. Cell lysis and reduced lymphocyte function do not fully explain MDV-IS.