Tet-Inducible Production of Infectious Zika Virus from the Full-Length cDNA Clones of African- and Asian-Lineage Strains

Tet-Inducible Production of Infectious Zika Virus from the Full-Length cDNA Clones of African- and Asian-Lineage Strains

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that has emerged as an important human viral pathogen, causing congenital malformation including microcephaly among infants born to mothers infected with the virus during pregnancy. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that ZIKV can be classified into Afri...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lizhou Zhang, Wei Ji, Shuang Lyu, Luhua Qiao, Guangxiang Luo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
Series:Viruses
Subjects:
Zika virus
reverse genetics
infectious cDNA
Tet-inducible
MR766
FSS13025
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/10/12/700
Description
Summary:Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that has emerged as an important human viral pathogen, causing congenital malformation including microcephaly among infants born to mothers infected with the virus during pregnancy. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that ZIKV can be classified into African and Asian lineages. In this study, we have developed a stable plasmid-based reverse genetic system for robust production of both ZIKV prototype African-lineage MR766 and clinical Asian-lineage FSS13025 strains using a tetracycline (Tet)-controlled gene expression vector. Transcription of the full-length ZIKV RNA is under the control of the Tet-responsive <i>P</i><sub>tight</sub> promoter at the 5&#8242; end and an antigenomic ribozyme of hepatitis delta virus at the 3&#8242; end. The transcription of infectious ZIKV RNA genome was efficiently induced by doxycycline. This novel ZIKV reverse genetics system will be valuable for the study of molecular viral pathogenesis of ZIKV and the development of new vaccines against ZIKV infection.
ISSN:1999-4915

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