Isolation and Characterization of PERV-C env from Domestic Pig in Korea

• Published in: Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 18; no. 10; pp. 1735 - 1740
• Main Authors: Park, S.H. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), Bae, E.H. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), Park, S.M. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), Park, J.W. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), Lim, M.S. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), Jung, Y.T. (Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea), E-mail: [e-mail]
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society for Applied Microbiology 01-10-2008; 한국미생물·생명공학회
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Line; CELLS; CELLULE; CELULAS; Cloning, Molecular; Disease Reservoirs - virology; envelope; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Korea; Molecular Sequence Data; PERV-C; Point Mutation; pseudotype assay; Recombination, Genetic; Retroviridae - chemistry; Retroviridae - genetics; Retroviridae - metabolism; Retroviridae Infections - virology; Sequence Alignment; Sus scrofa - virology; Viral Envelope Proteins - chemistry; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Viral Envelope Proteins - metabolism; xenotransplantation; 생물학; Asia; Korea; Characterization; Vertebrata; envelope; pseudotype assay; Mammalia; Isolation; PERV-C; xenotransplantation; Artiodactyla; Heterotransplantation; Ungulata; Pig
• ISSN: 1017-7825

Clone PERV-C (A3) env was isolated from the genomic DNA of domestic pig (Sus serofa domesticus) in Korea to investigate the molecular properties of PERV-C. The nucleic acid homologies between the PERV-MSL (type C) reference and the PERV-C(A3) clone was 99%, for elm, but a single base pair deletion was found in the transmembrane (TM) region of the env open reading frame. To examine the functional characteristics of truncated PERV-C env, we constructed a replication-incompetent retroviral vector by replacing the env gene of the pCL-Eco retrovirus vector with PERV-C env. A retroviral vector bearing PERV-C/A chimeric envelopes was also created to complement the TM defect. Our results indicated that truncated PERV-C env was not infectious in human cells as expected. Interestingly, however, the vector with the PERV-C/A envelope was able to infect 293 cells. This observation suggests that recombination within PERV-C TM could render PERV-C infectious in humans. To further characterize PERV-C/A envelopes, we constructed an infectious molecular clone by using a PCR-based technique. This infectious molecular clone sill be useful to examine more specific regions that are critical for human cell tropism.