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J Virol, April 1998, p. 3185-3195, Vol. 72, No. 4
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Inducible Gene Expression from African Swine Fever
Virus Recombinants: Analysis of the Major Capsid Protein p72
Ramón
García-Escudero,
Germán
Andrés,
Fernando
Almazán,
and
Eladio
Viñuela*
Centro de Biología Molecular
"Severo Ochoa" (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Facultad de
Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Received 17 October 1997/Accepted 11 December 1997
A method to study the function of individual African swine fever
virus (ASFV) gene products utilizing the Escherichia coli lac repressor-operator system has been developed. Recombinant viruses containing both the lacI gene encoding the
lac repressor and a strong virus late promoter modified by
the insertion of one or two copies of the lac operator
sequence at various positions were constructed. The ability of each
modified promoter to regulate expression of the firefly luciferase gene
was assayed in the presence and in the absence of the inducer isopropyl
-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG). Induction and repression of
gene activity were dependent on the position(s) of the operator(s) with
respect to the promoter and on the number of operators inserted. The
ability of this system to regulate the expression of ASFV genes was
analyzed by constructing a recombinant virus inducibly expressing the
major capsid protein p72. Electron microscopy analysis revealed that
under nonpermissive conditions, electron-dense membrane-like structures
accumulated in the viral factories and capsid formation was inhibited.
Induction of p72 expression allowed the progressive building of the
capsid on these structures, leading to assembly of ASFV particles. The results of this report demonstrate that the transferred inducible expression system is a powerful tool for analyzing the function of ASFV
genes.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centro de
Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa," Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Phone: 34 1 397 84 36. Fax: 34 1 397 84 90. E-mail:
Evinuela{at}mvax.cbm.uam.es.

Present address: Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University
of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RE, United Kingdom.
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