This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Other Versions of this Article: JVI.02188-06v1 81/9/4828    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dishon, A. Articles by Kotler, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Dishon, A. Articles by Kotler, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, May 2007, p. 4828-4836, Vol. 81, No. 9
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02188-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Persistence of Cyprinid Herpesvirus 3 in Infected Cultured Carp Cells

Department of Pathology, The Hebrew University—Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel

Received 5 October 2006/ Accepted 8 February 2007

Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3), previously designated carp interstitial nephritis and gill necrosis virus or koi herpesvirus, is the cause of a worldwide mortal disease of koi and carp. Morphologically, the virus resembles herpesviruses, yet it bears a genome of 277 to 295 kbp, which is divergent from most of the genomic sequences available in GenBank. The disease afflicts fish in the transient seasons, when the water temperature is 18 to 28°C, conditions which permit virus propagation in cultured cells. Here we report that infectious virus is preserved in cultured cells maintained for 30 days at 30°C. CyHV-3-infected vacuolated cells with deformed morphology converted to normal, and plaques disappeared following shifting up of the temperature and reappeared after transfer to the permissive temperature. Viral propagation and viral gene transcription were turned off by shifting cells to the nonpermissive temperature. Upon return of the cells to the permissive temperature, transcription of viral genes was reactivated in a sequence distinguished from that occurring in naïve cells following infection. Our results show that CyHV-3 persists in cultured cells maintained at the nonpermissive temperature and suggest that viruses could persist for long periods in the fish body, enabling a new burst of infection upon a shift to a permissive temperature.

Published ahead of print on 14 February 2007.