Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (12): 2470-2478.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.12.011

• PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mutation of N Protein Phosphorylation Site Affects Replication and Subgenomic Transcription of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus

YI Heyou1,2, YU Zhiqing1,2, CHEN Yao3, LI Qi1,2, WEI Yingfang1,2, ZHANG Guihong1,2*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Prevention and Control of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510642, China;
    3. Foshan University, Foshan 528231, China
  • Received:2019-06-26 Online:2019-12-23 Published:2019-12-20

Abstract: To explore whether the N-protein phosphorylation of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) affects viral replication, the ser-105 and ser-120 of the PRRSV N-protein were mutated into alanine alone or simultaneously. The rescued viruses were named as A105, A120 and A105-120, and their growth curve and subgenomic transcription level were determined respectively. The viral replication rate and titer of the mutant virus in MARC-145 were significantly lower than that of parental strain PRRSV XH-GD (P<0.01 or P<0.05). While in the primary PAM cells, the replication rate of the mutant virus decreased (P<0.01), but the final virus titer was not affected. The genomic (g) RNA transcription level of the mutant virulence group was significantly decreased (P<0.01 or P<0.05), and the phosphorylation site mutation significantly reduced the transcription of the longer subgenomic mRNA (sgmRNA)2/3 (P<0.01 or P<0.05), but increased the expression levels of the shorter sgmRNA 4/5 with time. Based on the gRNA expression level, the expression of sgmRNAs expression was analyzed. Our current work showed that the N-protein phosphorylation significantly affects the expression of sgmRNA4/5(P<0.01 or P<0.05). Mutation of N protein phosphorylation site affects PRRSV replication and subgenomic transcription.

Key words: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, N protein, phosphorylation, subgenome

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