AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS GENE A179L, A VIRAL HOMOLOG OF BCL-2, PROTECTS CELLS FROM PROGRAMMED CELL-DEATH

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) open reading frame A179L, which i s similar to the human proto-oncogene bcl-2, has been cloned and expre ssed in vaccinia virus under control of the pE/L synthetic early/late promoter. The A179L gene product prevented cell death in HeLa and BSC- 40 cells doubly infected with another recombinant vaccinia virus expre ssing the interferon-induced double-stranded RNA-activated protein kin ase (p68 kinase), which activates a rapid cell death characteristic of apoptosis. This finding suggests that the A179L gene has a function s imilar to that of bcl-2 in preventing apoptosis and may play an import ant role during productive ASFV infection. (C) 1996 Academic Press, In c.