Generation of Recombinant Rotavirus Having an Antigenic Mosaic of Cross-Reactive Neutralization Epitopes on VP4

Department of Virology and Parasitology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi 470-1192, Japan

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: kokitani{at}fujita-hu.ac.jp.

	Abstract

Recombinant rotavirus (RV) with cDNA-derived chimeric VP4 was generated using the recently developed reverse genetics for RV. The rescued virus, KU//rVP4(SA11)-II(DS-1), contains SA11 (simian RV strain, G3P[2])-based VP4, in which a cross-reactive neutralization epitope (amino acids 381-401) on VP5* is replaced by the corresponding sequence of a different P type DS-1 (human RV strain, G2P[4]). Serological analyses with a panel of anti-VP4 and -VP7 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies revealed that the rescued virus carries a novel antigenic mosaic of cross-reactive neutralization epitopes on its VP4. This is the first report of the generation of a recombinant RV with artificial amino acid substitutions.