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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,dagger 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 beta -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.

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




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