Attachment and penetration properties of bovine herpesvirus 1 recombinantsexpressing pseudorabies virus glycoproteins gC and gB

Objective: Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) has a relatively narrow host cell r ange in vitro and in vivo when compared to pseudorabies virus (PrV). The ai m of this study was to elucidate whether homologous glycoproteins gC and gB from PrV can function in a heterologous BHV-1 background and whether the e xpression of these PrV glycoproteins influences the in vitro host cell spec ificity of BHV-1. Methods: We constructed BHV-1 recombinants in which PrV g C and gB were expressed either individually or in combination, and examined their attachment and penetration properties in permissive Madin-Darby bovi ne kidney (MDBK), semipermissive hamster lung (HmLu-1) and nonpermissive mu rine embryo fibroblast (A31) cells. Results: Two BHV-1 recombinants which e xpressed PrV gC exhibited remarkable competence in virus attachment to cell s. The expression of PrV gB improved the virus attachment only a little but penetration, especially into HmLu-1 and A31 cells, was enhanced. Conclusio ns: These results indicate that PrV gC and gB can function in a BHV-1 envir onment and facilitate virus attachment and penetration by BHV-1. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.