The pp38 gene of Marek's disease virus (MDV) is necessary for cytolytic infection of B cells and maintenance of the transformed state but not for cytolytic infection of the feather follicle epithelium and horizontal spread of MDV. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Marek's disease virus has a unique phosphoprotein, pp38, which is suspected to play an important role in Marek's disease pathogenesis. The objective of the present study was to utilize a mutant virus lacking the pp38 gene (rMd5Deltapp38) to better characterize the biological function of pp38. This work shows that the pp38 gene is necessary to establish cytolytic infection in B cells but not in feather follicle epithelium, to produce an adequate level of latently infected T cells, and to maintain the transformed status in vivo.

published proceedings

  • J Virol

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Gimeno, I. M., Witter, R. L., Hunt, H. D., Reddy, S. M., Lee, L. F., & Silva, R. F.

citation count

  • 57

complete list of authors

  • Gimeno, IM||Witter, RL||Hunt, HD||Reddy, SM||Lee, LF||Silva, RF

publication date

  • April 2005