A Genetically Engineered Commercial Chicken Line Is Resistant to Highly Pathogenic Avian Leukosis Virus Subgroup J

Microorganisms

卷:9

Benjamin Schade¹  Brigitte Böhm¹  Rudolf Preisinger²  AndeléM. Conradie³  Ahmed Kheimar³  BenediktB. Kaufer³  You Yu³  LucaD. Bertzbach³  Hicham Sid⁴  Benjamin Schusser⁴  Romina Klinger⁴  Venugopal Nair⁵ 

[1] Bavarian Animal Health Service, Department of Pathology, 85586 Poing, Germany;

[2] EW Group GmbH, 49429 Visbek, Germany;

[3] Institute of Virology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14163 Berlin, Germany;

[4] Reproductive Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Life Sciences, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany;

[5] The Pirbright Institute, Woking GU24 0NF, UK;

关键词: avian retrovirus;    avian leukosis virus subgroup J;    HPRS-103;    CRISPR/Cas9;    gene editing;    chNHE1;   

DOI  :  10.3390/microorganisms9051066

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Viral diseases remain a major concern for animal health and global food production in modern agriculture. In chickens, avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) represents an important pathogen that causes severe economic loss. Until now, no vaccine or antiviral drugs are available against ALV-J and strategies to combat this pathogen in commercial flocks are desperately needed. CRISPR/Cas9 targeted genome editing recently facilitated the generation of genetically modified chickens with a mutation of the chicken ALV-J receptor Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger type 1 (chNHE1). In this study, we provide evidence that this mutation protects a commercial chicken line (NHE1ΔW38) against the virulent ALV-J prototype strain HPRS-103. We demonstrate that replication of HPRS-103 is severely impaired in NHE1ΔW38 birds and that ALV-J-specific antigen is not detected in cloacal swabs at later time points. Consistently, infected NHE1ΔW38 chickens gained more weight compared to their non-transgenic counterparts (NHE1W38). Histopathology revealed that NHE1W38 chickens developed ALV-J typical pathology in various organs, while no pathological lesions were detected in NHE1ΔW38 chickens. Taken together, our data revealed that this mutation can render a commercial chicken line resistant to highly pathogenic ALV-J infection, which could aid in fighting this pathogen and improve animal health in the field.

【 授权许可】

Unknown