DEVELOPMENT OF COWPEA MOSAIC-VIRUS AS A HIGH-YIELDING SYSTEM FOR THE PRESENTATION OF FOREIGN PEPTIDES

It has recently been shown that cowpea plants can be infected with a c owpea mosaic virus (CPMV) chimera containing an antigenic site from fo ot-and-mouth disease virus (Usha et al., Virology 197, 366-374, 1993). Analysis of progeny RNA produced during such an infection has reveale d that the inserted sequence is rapidly lost during serial passaging, probably by a process of homologous recombination. Using the informati on gained from this analysis, we have redesigned the chimeras in such a way that they are now genetically stable. The modified constructs ha ve been used to obtain large quantities of purified virus particles ex pressing epitopes derived from human rhinovirus 14 (HRV-14) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The chimeric virus particles po ssess the antigenic properties of the inserted sequence and, in the ca se of the HRV-14-derived construct, it has been shown that the inserte d epitope is immunogenic in rabbits. These results demonstrate that CP MV can be used as a high-yielding system for the presentation of forei gn peptide sequences. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.