Ebola virus (EBOV) uses transcriptional editing to express several glycoproteins (GPs), including secreted soluble GP (sGP) and structural GP1,2, from a single gene. Recombinant viruses predominantly expressing GP1,2 are known to rapidly mutate and acquire an editing site predominantly expressing sGP in vivo, suggesting an important role of this protein during infection. Therefore, we generated a recombinant virus that is no longer able to express sGP and assessed its virulence in the EBOV guinea pig model. Surprisingly, although this virus remained genetically stable, it did not show any significant attenuation in vivo, showing that sGP is not required for virulence in this model.
Keywords: ebola virus; guinea pigs; mRNA editing; recombinant virus; reverse genetics; sGP; soluble glycoprotein; virulence.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2015. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.