Patent Application: US-201615528328-A

Abstract:
the present invention describes a viral rna expression plasmid and a method for obtaining viral particles based on said plasmids comprising transfecting animal cells with an expression vector or a set of expression vectors capable of expressing a nucleoprotein and rna - dependent polymerase rna ; and transfecting the animal cell with an expression vector or a set of expression vectors with nucleotide sequences encoding recombinant rna molecules .

Description:
although this methodology has been initially developed to obtain viral particles of the isa virus , it has been also confirmed that in other species of upper vertebrates this expression system is successful for the production of rna molecules without any additional nucleotides on their ends , which significantly broadens the usefulness of this technique . this way , with this expression system it is possible to obtain any desired protein or rna , in a countless different cell types . an example thereof is this system &# 39 ; s capacity to transcribe viral rna at 12 hpt in a human kek 293 cell line as well as in a st swine cell line , incubated at 37 ° c . ( 98 . 6 ° f .). therefore , the present invention seeks to solve the technical problem of providing a molecular genetics system allowing to obtain functional viral particles from ns - rna . other purpose of this invention is to provide a method for expressing autogenic or exogenic proteins to the viral particle used , as well as to express nucleic acids of the interference arn - type . ask cells ( www . atcc . org , crl 2747 ), derived from atlantic salmon kidney , were cultured in leibovitz medium ( l - 15 , hyclone ), supplemented with 50 μg / ml gentamicin ), 10 % bovine serum ( sfb , corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 6 mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ) and 40 μm β - mercaptoethanol ( gibco ®, life technologies ). rtg - 2 cells ( http :// www . phe - culturecollections . org . uk , ecacc 90102529 ), derived from rainbow trout gonad tissue , were cultured in a minimum essential medium ( mem , hyclone ) supplemented with 50 μg / ml gentamicin , 10 % sfb ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 10 mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 1 % non - essential amino acids ( hyclone ) and 10 mm hepes ( hyclone ). cse - 119 cells , derived from coho salmon embryo ( http :// www . phe - culturecollections . org . uk , ecacc 95122019 ) were cultured in a minimum essential medium ( mem , hyclone ) supplemented with 50 pg / ml gentamicin , 10 % sfb ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 2 mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 1 % non - essential amino acids ( hyclone ). the cell lines were raised at 60 . 8 ° f ., without co2 , except for cse - 119 . hek293 cells ( atcc crl 1573 ), human embryonic kidney cells , were cultured in eagle &# 39 ; s minimum essential medium ( emem , hyclone ), supplemented with 50 μg / ml gentamicin , 10 % fbs ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 10 mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 1 % non - essential amino acids ( hyclone ) and 10 mm hepes ( hyclone ). st cells ( www . atcc . org , crl 1746 ) derived from swine testicles , were cultured in eagle &# 39 ; s minimum essential medium ( emem , hyclone ) supplemented with 50 μg / ml gentamicin ), 10 % fbs ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 10 mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 1 % non - essential amino acids ( hyclone ) and 10 mm hepes ( hyclone ). virus purification was performed from 40 ml of ask cell supernatant infected with the isav901_09 strain . after 14 post infection days , the cell supernatant was taken and clarified at 1000 × g for 20 minutes at 39 . 2 ° f . the supernatant was then ultracentrifuged at 133 , 200 × g for 2 hours at 4 ° c . ( 39 . 2 ° f .) and the pellet obtained was suspended in 100 μl tne buffer overnight , at 4 ° c . ( 39 . 2 ° f .). then , the suspension was loaded into 4 ml of a 20 % w / v sucrose mattress in tne buffer , and was ultracentrifuged at 124 , 200 × g for 2 hours at 4 ° c . ( 39 . 2 ° f . ), and , finally , the resulting pellet was re - suspended in 50 μl of tne buffer . viral rna extraction ( vrna ) was performed from 50 μl of purified isav901_09 virus , using the commercial e . z . n . a kit . total rna kit ii ( omega , bio - tek , inc . ), according to manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . the purified rna was then quantified by measuring absorbance at 260 nm through the nanoquant infinite m200 pro ( tecan , austria ) equipment , and a vrna concentration of 2 . 7 μg / μl was obtained . the vrna was stored at − 80 ° c . (− 112 ° f . ), until its use . amplification of the complete 8 iasv 901_09 genomic segments , bioinformatics analysis and primer design . the sequences including the non - coding 5 ′ and 3 ′ utr ends of the eight genomic segments of the publications by fourrier et al ., kulshreshtha et al ., and merour et al ., ( 11 , 17 , 20 ), were collected . these sequences correspond to two scottish isolates ( 390 / 98 and 982 / 08 ), one norwegian isolate ( glesvaer / 2 / 90 ), two canadian isolates ( nbisa01 and rpc nb 98 - 049 ) and a chilean one ( adl - pm 3205 isav ). multiple alignment was performed using the clustalw2 program . based on the analysis of the alignments , the universal primers were designed to amplify the 8 complete segments , including the 5 ′ and 3 ′ utr regions of any isav strain ( table i ). the viral rna of isav901_09 ( 7 ) was obtained by extraction from purified virus ; the cdna of the eight genomic segments was obtained via rt - pcr . to this effect , the superscript ™ one - step rt - pcr system with taq platinum dna polymerase kit ( invitrogen ) was used following manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . in order to obtain the cdna of each segment in the rt - pcr reaction , the primer f ( forward ) ( 10 μm ) and the appropriate r primer ( reverse ) ( table i ) and 50 ng viral rna , were used . the cdnas of the isav genomic segments were cloned in the pgemt - easy vector ( promega ), following manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . three clones of each plasmid were sequenced using universal primers for promoter t7 and sp6 , in addition to internal primers for each segment , as described in cottet et al ( 7 ). the sequencing results were analyzed using the bioedit sequence alignment editor 7 . 1 . 3 program , and to confirm the identity of the sequences , a local alignment was made using the blast server . in addition , a multiple alignment , using the clustalw2 server between the sequences obtained from the 3 ′ and 5 ′ utr ends of all the isav901_09 segments , was made . once the complete sequences of the 8 segments of isav901_09 ( with the 3 ′ and 5 ′ utr ends ) were obtained , they were used to synthesize the isav901_09 genome ( genscript co . usa ), incorporating into its ends the cleavage sites for the sapl enzyme , and , thus , avoiding errors in the subsequent cloning in the pss - urg vector . in order to have a plasmid allowing for the transcription of the isav vrna , a cassette that was synthesized using advances in synthetic biology ( genscript co . ), and incorporated into the puc57 plasmid , was designed . the new vector built was called pss - urg ( plasmid for salmo salar universal reverse genetic ). fig1 c shows the scheme of all of the elements required for a correct transcription of vrnas . arranged from left to right , it follows that : as a promoter , its - 1 region of salmo salar ; the sequence of hammerhead rybozime ; rybozime of the hepatitis delta virus ( δ ); between the sequences of the two ribosomes are the cut sites for the sap i distant cut enzyme ( new england biolabs ), and , finally , the rabbit β - globin transcription terminator . this innovative design allows to insert any isav genomic segment , or any other nucleotidic sequence , without incorporating other sequences at vrna &# 39 ; s both ends . then , each one of the 8 cdnas of the complete isav segments were cloned in the pss - urg plasmid . this way , a collection of plasmids called pss - urg / 1 , pss - urg / 2 , pss - urg / 3 , pss - urg / 4 , pss - urg / 5 , pss - urg / 6 , pss - urg / 7 and pss - urg / 8 , is obtained ( fig1 e ). a construct was designed based on the pss - urg vector having the complete sequence ( including the 3 ′ and 5 ′ utr ends ) in antisense and inverted from segment 6 of isav 901_09 . as a marker , the vector has additions , in frame , within the hpr region of segment 6 , exactly nine nucleotides containing the restriction site for the noti enzyme nt 1015 5 ′- gtagca [ gcggccgca ] acatct - 3 ′ nt 1 . 036 ( fig2 ). the designed vector , called pss - ugr / s6 - noti - hpr , was synthesized at genscript co ., using puc57 as basis . in order to generate the pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr vector , the egfp coding sequence was cloned into the pss - ugr / s6 - noti - hpr vector using not i restriction site of the hpr region ( fig2 ). vectors to express pb2 , pb1 , pa and np proteins of isav901_09 from the orfs of segments 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 of isa virus 901_09 encoding for pb2 , pb1 , pa and np , respectively , ( id n ° 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ) and which are cloned in the pgemt - easy vector ( 7 ), high fidelity pcr with pfx platinum ( invitrogen ) was performed . the primers used to amplify each one of the gens are shown in table 2 , which include cutting sites for ncol , smal and xhol enzymes ( new england biolabs ). cloning orfs of pb2 and pa was made with ncol and xhol restriction enzymes , cloning of the orf from pb1 was made with smal and xhol restriction enzymes , and that of the orf encoding for np was with mlul and xbal restriction enzymes . for the expression of pb2 , pb1 and pa , the orfs of segments 1 , 2 , and 3 were cloned in the ptriex3 vector ( novagen ). on the other hand , for the expression of the np protein , the orf of segment 3 was cloned in the pci - neo vector ( promega ). table 2 primers to amplify the pb2 , pb1 , pa and np orf of isav901_09 for cloning cmv vectors . orf 5 ′ to 3 ′ primer f 5 ′ to 3 ′ primer r pb2 ncoi - atgcc atggactttatatcagaa xhoi - ccg ctcgag aacaccatattcatc aacacgatcagcg catagg pb1 smai - tcc cccggg aaactctagtaggtg xhoi - ccg ctcgag aacacgctttttcttctt aatcac np mlui - cg acgcgt catggccgataaaggt xbai - cgc tctaga tcaaatgtcagtgtcttc atgac ctc pa ncoi - catgcc atggataacctccgtgaa xhoi - ccg ctcgag ttgggtactgactgcaa tgcataaacc ttttc ex vivo transcription trial , ask cell transfection kinetics with pss - urg / seg6 - noti vector to test the functionality of the pss - urg base vector , ask cells were seeded at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cell / cm 2 per well in a 24 - well plate ( spl ) in leibovitz medium ( l - 15 , hyclone ), supplemented with gentamicin ( 50 μg / ml ) and 10 % fetal bovine serum ( sfb , hyclone ) being cultured at 18 ° c . ( 64 . 4 ° f . ), until reaching 80 % confluence . the cells were transfected with the pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr vector using fugene 6 ( promega ) at a 1 : 6 ratio , following manufacturer &# 39 ; s specifications . the cells were incubated at 16 ° c . ( 60 . 8 ° f .) for 3 hours , the mixture being then removed and the cells washed 2 twice with pbs , starting with transfection kinetics that is at 0 , 3 , 6 , 9 , 12 and 15 hours . from each well , at each point of the kinetics , total rna was extracted from the cells using e . z . n . a . total rna kit ii ( omega , bio - tek ), dna was eliminated by using rq - dnase treatment ( promega ). the rna obtained was subjected to rt - pcr using primers for the noti restriction site and the 5 ′ utr end of viral segment 6 ( table 3 ). cdna was obtained through reverse transcription ( rt ) using the m - mulv reverse transcriptase enzyme ( moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase , 200u / μl new england biolabs ). the reverse transcription mixture was made at a final 25 μl volume , in accordance with manufacturer &# 39 ; s specifications . cdna was then used to carry out a pcr reaction with dna polymerase paq5000 ( agilent technologies ). pcr products were visualized by electrophoresis at 90 volts for 1 hour on a 2 % ethidium bromide - stained ( 10 mg / ml ) agarose gel ( fig3 ). ask cells were seeded at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cell / cm 2 on nunc ™ lab - tek ™ ii chamber slide ™ system plates , and then incubated for 72 hours at 18 ° c . ( 64 . 4 ° f .). the cells were transfected with fugene 6 ( promega ) 1 : 6 , in accordance with manufacturer &# 39 ; s specifications . as for the generation of isavr 901 _ 09 , a total of 250 ng of a mixture of vectors ptriex - 3 - pb2 , ptriex - 3 - pb1 , ptriex - 3 - pa and pci - neo - np and 1 μg of the total eight pss - urg ( pss - urg / 1 - 8 ) vectors . recovery of the risavs6 - noti - hpr and risavs6 - egfp - hpr viruses was performed by replacing pss - urg / 6 with pss - ugr / s6 - noti - hpr and pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr , respectively . the cells were then incubated with 1 ml of l - 15 medium , for 7 days at 16 ° c . ( 60 . 8 ° f .) ( fig4 ). ask cells were seeded at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cell / cm 2 per well , in 8 - well nunc ™ lab - tek ™ ii chamber slide ™ system plates , and were cultured at 16 ° c . ( 60 . 8 ° f . ), until reaching 90 % confluency . then , the cells were washed with pbs twice , and blind passages were made with 100 μl of a 1 : 10 dilution of the supernatant either from passage 0 ( p0 ) at 7 days post - transfection or from the different passages at 7 days post infection of isavrs6 - egfp - hpr in l - 15 medium without sfb with gentamicin ( 50 μg / ml ). the cells were incubated for 4 hours at 16 ° c . ( 60 . 8 ° f . ), then washed twice with pbs and 500 μl of l - 15 medium was added with 10 % sfb and gentamicin ( 50 μg / ml ), being then incubated for 7 days at 16 ° c . ( 60 . 8 ° f .). each viral passage was obtained with this procedure every 7 days up to the fourth isavr s6 - egfp - hpr passage , in addition to p0 . the supernatant of each passage was stored at − 20 ° c . , until further analysis thereof ( fig4 ). to detect isavr s6 - egfp - hpr , a total rna of 350 μl was extracted from the ask cells &# 39 ; supernatant as transfected with the 12 plasmids at 7 post - transfection days ( isavr s6 - egfp - hprn ) or supernatants from the 1st to 4 th blind passages , with rnav extracted from rnav of segment 6 , egfp and segment 6 - egfp being detected through rt - pcr . prior to the rt - pcr reaction , the rna was treated with rnase - free dnase ( promega ). for the reverse transcription reaction ( rt ), f - utr - s6 primers ( table 1 ), f - s6 primers ( table 3 ), or egfp primers ( table 4 ) were used , using the m - mlv rt enzyme ( 200 u / μl promega ), in accordance with manufacturer &# 39 ; s specifications . for pcr , the gotaq ® green master mix kit ( promega ) and forward ( s6 or egfp ) and reverse ( s6 or egfp ) primers were used . the thermal program used was : 95 ° c . for 2 minutes , 35 95 ° c . cycles for 30 seconds , 59 , 1 ° c . for egfp , or 54 ° c . for s6 or s6 - egfp , 30 seconds , 72 ° c . for 30 seconds , and a final extension of 72 ° c . for 5 minutes . in all of the cases , re - amplification of the pcr products was carried out , using the same primers . the products of the pcr re - amplification were visualized via electrophoresis on 1 % ( w / v ) agarose gel , run at 90 v for 45 minutes , and stained with ethidium bromide ( 10 mg / ml ). in order to detect the number of copies of the vrna , a qrt - pcr was carried out in real time using the absolute method as described by munir and kibenge ( 22 ), a standard curve being made from the pss - urg / s8 plasmid . the rt - pcr analysis in real time was carried out on the eco real - time pcr system equipment ( illumina ), using the sensimix ™ sybr ® hi - rox kit ( bioline ), following manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions , using the f - s8 and r - s8 primers ( table 4 ). the thermal profile used to amplify the region of segment 8 was 1 initial denaturation cycle of 10 minutes a 95 ° c ., followed by 40 amplification cycles ( 15 seconds at 95 ° c ., 15 seconds at 60 ° c ., and 15 seconds at 72 ° c .). following the amplification cycles , a dissociation cycle ( 30 seconds at 95 ° c ., 30 seconds at 55 ° c ., and 30 seconds at 95 ° c ., was carried out . this procedure was performed for passage 4 of the recombinant virus . the results obtained were analyzed on ecostudy software . on the 7th post - infection day , ask cells infested with risavs6 - egfp - hpr in each passage of the recombinant virus were analyzed via confocal microscopy , using the procedure as described by rivas - aravena et al . ( 45 ). the fixed cells were observed using a lsm 510 confocal microscope ( zeiss ), utilizing the lsm image browser software to detect risavs6 - egfp - hpr by visualizing egfp fluorescence . in addition , risav was detected using anti - he monoclonal antibody ( bioschile ), as was already described ( 45 ). ask cells were seeded at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cell / cm 2 per well of a 12 - well plate ( spl ) and were incubated at 16 ° c . until reaching 100 % confluency . the isavr s6 - egfp - hpr variant of passage 4 was tagged . the procedure was performed as described by castillo - cerda et al ( 35 ). ask cells were seeded at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cell / cm 2 per well , in a 48 - well plate ( spl ), and were incubated at 16 ° c . until reaching 100 % confluency . passage 4 of isavr s6 - egfp - hpr was tagged . to this effect , serial dilutions of each viral inoculum were performed using a 10 - dilution factor , from 10 − 1 to 10 − 6 in l - 15 medium , without fbs . the culture medium was then removed and 400 μl of viral inoculum was added to each well , and it was incubated at 16 ° c . for 4 hours to allow virus absorption . subsequently , the inoculum was removed from each well , the cells were washed twice with pbs and , then , the l - 15 medium was added , being supplemented with 10 % sfb , 6mm l - glutamine ( corning cellgro ®, mediatech ), 40 μm β - mercaptoethanol ( gibco ®, life technologies ), 50 μg / ml gentamicin . the plates were incubated for 7 days at 16 ° c . at the end of the infection , the supernatants from each well were analyzed , fluorescence being quantified using the nanoquant infinite m200 pro equipment ( tecan , austria ), exciting at 485 nm , and capturing the emission at 535 nm . these supernatants were also used for extracting total rna and subsequent qrt - pcr , in real - time , to quantify the rnav in isav segment 8 , and for determining , this way , the number of copies of the cell culture from segment 8 , as described above . infection kinetics of isav901_09 , isavr 901 _ 09 , isavr s6 / egfp - hpr infections of ask cells were carried out with the fourth passage of isavr s6 / egfp - hpr , using the fourth passage of isavr 901 _ 09 as control , in addition to wild isav901_09 . for each virus isolate , an infection was carried out with a moi of 0 . 01 . the infection kinetics was carried out by collecting samples at 0 , 2 , 4 and 7 days after the infection , then a rna extraction , dnase treatment , and then a real - time qrt - pcr were carried out , to quantify rnav of isav segment 8 of each cell culture supernatant ( 22 ). the ask cells were seeded as indicated above and cultured at 16 ° c . until reaching 90 % confluence . cells were then infected with 400 μl of a 1 : 10 dilution of isavr s6 / egfp - hpr virus in its 4th passage , or the 4th passage of risav 901 _ 09 or wild isav901_09 as control . four days after infection , the cells were fixed with 2 . 5 % glutaraldehyde in cacodylate buffer 0 . 1 m at ph 7 . 2 for 6 hours at room temperature , and then washed with sodium cacodylate buffer 0 . 1 m at ph 7 . 2 for 18 hours at 4 ° c . the samples were then fixed with 1 % aqueous osmium tetroxide for 90 minutes , and then washed with distilled water and stained with an aqueous solution of 1 % uranyl acetate for 60 minutes . samples were then dehydrated with washes of 20 minutes each time with a series of buffers containing acetone 50 , 70 , 2 × 95 and 3 × 100 %. samples were finally embedded in epon resin / acetone at 1 : 1 ratio overnight , and then embedded in pure epon resin which was polymerized at 60 ° c . for 24 hours . thin sections ( 60 - 70 nm ) were obtained in ultramicrotome sorvall mt - 5000 , and then mounted on copper grids , and then stained with 4 % uranyl acetate in methanol for 2 min , and then citrate for 5 min . the samples were observed with a 12 to 80 kv electron microscope philips tecnai ( fig6 ). fig1 : obtaining the plasmids to allow transcription of the 8 rnav of isav901_09 : ( 1 ) pss - urg plasmids and the plasmid containing each of the isav genome segments are digested with the sapl restriction enzyme . the digestion products are visualized on a 1 % agarose gel , and then purified . ( 2 ) the digested product corresponding to the isav genome segment and the linear pss - urg plasmid are ligated with t4 ligase , and then this ligation is used to transform chemo - competent bacteria . ( 3 ) from the clones containing the expected recombinant plasmids , purification is carried out to confirm the correct insertion of the genome segment by sequencing . fig2 : schematic design of pss - urg , pss - urg / s6 - noti and pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr cassettes . the universal vector contains the sequence of : promoter of s . salar ( ss prom ); hammerhead ribozyme ( hh rib ); hepatitis virus ribozyme δ ( hdv rib ); rabbit β - globin transcription terminator ( term ). pss - urg / s6 - not and pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr plasmids contain the cdna of antisense and inverted segment 6 , which includes 5 ′ and 3 ′ utrs and their modifications ; noti restriction site or the egfp coding sequence . fig3 : rt - pcr of the 6 - noti - hpr segment from ask salmon cells transfected with pss - urg / s6 - not - hpr plasmids . agarose gel electrophoresis of rt - pcr products of segment 6 at selected post transfection times . ask cells were transfected using fugene 6 ( promega ), the plasmid used was pss - urg / segment 6 . fig4 : reverse genetics to obtain recombinant isa virus : ask cells are transfected with 8 pss - urg / s1 - 8 plasmids , which allow transcription of the 8 vrna ( isav genome ), together with 4 plasmids that allow expression of the proteins that form the crnp ( pb2 , pb1 , pa and np ). co - transfection of these 12 plasmids in the same cell to allow the formation of the 8 crnp in the nucleus , which are the minimum unit required to form an isav viral particle . these crnps allow transcription and replication of the vrna , allowing synthesis of all proteins that form the virus and the generation of new crnps , thus forming recombinant viral particles . fig5 : rt - pcr of 6 - noti - hpr segment from st swine cells ( a ) and hek - 293 human cells ( b ), both transfected with pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr plasmid using fugene 6 ( promega ). agarose gel electrophoresis of rt - pcr products of segment 6 at selected post transfection times . fig6 : electron microscopy analysis of recombinant isav from sections of infected ask cells . cytoplasmic membrane with isav particles budding from infections with : ( a ) wt isav 901_09 , ( b ) risavs6 - egfp - hpr and ( c ) risav 901_09 . ( d ) endosomal section showing risav 901_09 particles inside endosomes , which correspond to the initial steps of the fusion of viral and endosomal membranes . bar : 200 nm . the complete genome of a virus isolate adapted to cell culture , such as isav 901_09 ( hpr 1c ), was sequenced . alignments between the noncoding regions ( utr ) of the 5 ′ and 3 ′ ends of complete sequences of the six isav isolates , two scots ( 390 / 98 and 982 / 08 ), one norwegian ( glesvr / 2 / 90 ), two canadian ( nbisa01 and rpc nb 98 - 049 ), and one chilean ( adl - pm 3205 isav ) have high conservation at the ends of each viral genome segment , allowing to design universal primers described in table i . the primers were used to amplify the genome of the chilean isav 901_09 strain . the result of sequencing the eight viral genome segments is shown in table iv . the sizes of the eight viral segments range from 2267 bp to 906 bp for segments 1 and 8 , respectively . the sequence of the 3 ′ utr regions ranged from 7 nucleotides in segment 6 to 48 nucleotides in segment 3 , and there were no differences in the size of each 3 ′ utr end previously described for the 6 genomes analyzed , except for the addition of a nucleotide at the 3 ′ utr end of segment 7 . the sequences of the 5 ′ utr ends of isav 901_09 range from 67 nucleotides in segment 4 to 147 nucleotides in segment 3 . the alignment of the utr regions also indicates that isav 901_09 has a high similarity with the isav glesvr / 2 / 90 strain ( between 97 % and 98 % identity ). in order to achieve a vector which expresses segments of full - length viral rna without additional nucleotides , taking advantage of advances in synthetic biology , an innovative design was made integrating elements previously used in reverse genetics of rna viruses , such as hammerhead ribozymes and delta ( δ ) hepatitis virus , together with genome elements of the salmo salar species . the designed vector was called pss - urg ( plasmid for salmo salar universal reverse genetic ). the correctly connected components contained by the vector and ordered from left to right are : as a promoter its - 1 region of salmo salar , a sequence of hammerhead ribozyme , the ribozyme of delta ( δ ) hepatitis virus , and the sequences of the two ribozymes incorporate two cutting sites for sap i enzyme ( new england biolabs ), and finally incorporated as transcription terminator is rabbit beta globin terminator ( fig2 ). this vector would allow cloning , without incorporating additional sequences , any viral segment , through the use of a distant cut enzyme , such as sap i . thus , this study presents a vector to be the base of the reverse genetics system for the isa virus . once the pss - urg plasmid is synthesized , subcloning of the eight genome segments of isav was achieved from synthetic genomes using distant cut enzyme sap i ( data not shown ). in addition to cloning the eight viral segments , as a genetic marker and in order to prove that generated viruses are recombinant agents and do not correspond to a contamination of the procedure , two genetic elements were inserted in the hpr area of the universal vector containing segment 6 . the first genetic variant corresponds to the insertion in the hpr area of a sequence of nine nucleotides with the cutting site for the noti enzyme , calling this new vector pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr . a second genetic variant corresponds to the product of cloning the sequence which codes for egfp using previously created noti site , thus the new vector called pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr is obtained . analysis of functionality for pss - urg vector by ex vivo transcription trial to determine whether all the elements included in the vector allow the expression of viral rna in salmon cells , and due to the uncertainty of functionality of the promoter suggested in its - 1 region of salmo salar , ask cells were transfected with pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr plasmid in an ex vivo transcription trial . to determine the existence of a transcription process , the functionality analysis was made by detecting the rnav at times 0 , 3 , 6 , 9 , 12 and 15 after transfection ( hpt ) through rt - pcr . the reverse transcription reaction was made using a single first complementary to the not i restriction site . surprisingly , the analysis result can display a pcr product from three hpt , which increases in intensity until 15 hpt ( fig3 ). this result would indicate that from transfected pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr plasmid , the cell is generating an rna having the noti restriction site , and therefore its - 1 region of salmo salar corresponds to a promoter element . to prove the generation of a viral rna without additional nucleotides , a rt - pcr was carried out with specific primers for each ribozyme , the results showed that it was not possible to obtain an amplification product with primers that recognize sequences of ribozymes in any point of kinetics , indicating that generated rna has no additional regions , such as , for example , ribozymes ( data not shown ). these results suggest the use of the its - 1 region and the inclusion in pss - urg vector to express any type of rna inside the cells . for example , rna can be expressed as interfering rna , silencing rna or also micro rnas . as it has been reported for influenza virus , the functional minimum unit of the virus corresponds to the ribonucleoprotein ( rnp ) complex , which consists of viral rna that is bound by multiple copies of np and by the viral polymerase including pb1 , pb2 and pa subunits . in order to form the rnp complexes in salmon cells , orfs of segments 1 to 4 of isav901_09 were cloned into expression vectors commanded by the cytomegalovirus promoter . thus , using the ptriex - 3 vector ( novagen ), orfs of segments 1 , 2 and 4 were cloned , obtaining ptriex3 - pb2 , ptriex3 - pb1 , ptriex3 - pa vectors . besides , using the pci - neo vector ( promega ), segment 3 was cloned generating pci - neo - np vector ( data not shown ). transfection of these vectors into salmon cells allows expression of recombinant proteins pb2 , pb1 , pa and np , respectively . for the generation of isavr s6 - noti - hpr , ask cells were cotransfected with twelve plasmids , four of which correspond to expression vectors ptriex 3 - pb2 , ptriex 3 - pb1 , ptriex 3 - pa and pci - neo - np , and the remaining eight correspond to plasm ids for pss - urg reverse genetics with each of the eight genome segments of isav901_09 as dna , replacing native segment 6 by seg6 - noti - hpr . in order to amplify and determine the presence of recombinant virus , after transfection of cells , two blind passages were made in ask cells infecting with the supernatants obtained from the previous transfections . on the one hand , the presence of rnav of segment 6 ( noti / hpr ) was detected , through rt - pcr , obtaining a product of an expected 306 bp size , both in the rna extracted from the transfection supernatant and from the two subsequent passages , which suggests the presence of infectious viruses . the second passage supernatant was used to infect a greater amount of ask cells . from the infected cells , which showed an obvious cytopathic effect ( data not shown ), the recombinant virus was visualized by transmission electron microscopy . fig6 shows spherical particles similar to virus with diameters near 100 nm , which suggests that these correspond to the recombinant viruses . therefore , it was possible to detect a recombinant isavr s6 - noti - hpr virus in infected cells , with replicative activity and reproducible cytopathic effect in passages subsequent to their generation . in order to generate recombinant isa virus containing a reporter gene , such as egfp , in order to facilitate ex vivo monitoring and discard that results are artifactual results or contamination , ask cells were co - transfected with twelve plasmids simultaneously : four of them correspond to expression vectors ptriex3 - pb2 , ptriex3 - pb1 , ptriex3 - pa and pcl - neo - np ; the remaining eight plasmids correspond to vectors pss - urg / 1 , pss - urg / 2 , pss - urg / 3 , pss - urg / 4 , pss - urg / 5 , pss - urg / 7 and pss - urg / 8 ; also incorporating segment 6 with vector pss - urg / s6 - egfp - hpr ; the virus which contains egfp in the hpr area of the protein is called isavr s6 - egfp - hpr . to determine whether recombinant viral particles were generated after transfection , the culture supernatant ( passage 0 , p 0 ) was analyzed 7 days after transfection ( dpt ). for this purpose , it was initially detected by rt - pcr rnav of segment 6 , as well as the egfp coding sequence in a second pcr product , and finally an area containing both part of segment 6 and the egfp . the results showed that rt - pcr products for segment 6 have a different migration distance of the pcr products for the native virus (− 300 bp ) and the recombinant virus having egfp in the he protein ( 1 , 000 bp ). the rt - pcr of the egfp coding sequence has a ˜ 500 bp product , which is not observed in the native virus analyzed . for rt - pcr of s6 - egfp , an amplification product of − 800 bp was obtained for the recombinant virus as expected . to determine whether the supernatant of ask cells transfected with twelve plasmids indeed contains the viral variant isavr s6 - egfp - hpr with the characteristics of an infectious agent , egfp fluorescence was used as a reporter . the ask cells infected with the supernatant that would contain the first progeny isavr s6 - egfp - hpr were analyzed under confocal microscope 7 days after infection . the results show that it is possible to visualize cells emitting green fluorescence attributable to egfp , corresponding to the first passage of the isavr s6 - egfp - hpr virus . distribution of the egfp mark is found mainly in the cytoplasm and towards the plasma membrane , fluorescence being not observed in the cell nucleus . to confirm that the supernatant of transfected cells ( passage 0 ) contains the isavr s6 - egfp - hpr virus with lytic capacity , a lysis plaque trial was carried out on ask cells . the result of the lysis plaque trial showed that the recombinant virus has the ability to generate lysis plaques like the wild virus , obtaining a virus titre in the order of 1 × 10 4 pfu / m l . subsequently , the ability of this recombinant virus to maintain infectiousness and fluorescence was assessed in cell culture . four blind passages of infection in ask cells were carried out with 7 - day gaps . then , in each supernatant of the recombinant virus passages , a rt - pcr was carried out to detect rnav both of segment 6 and of the coding sequence for egfp , and a region of the egfp - s6 hybrid sequence . the result made possible to visualize a pcr product of 500 bp egfp and egfp - s6 hybrid sequences of 800 bp , indicating the presence of segment 6 containing the egfp gene in all supernatants analyzed . the pcr product of segment 6 shows a 300 bp product in the supernatant of infected ask cells with isav901_09 wild virus , as expected , in contrast to the 1 , 000 bp of the pcr product obtained in each of the four passages of isavr s6 - egfp - hpr virus , whose larger size is the result of having incorporated the egfp gene in segment 6 . to determine that each of the four passages not only had a virus with infectivity , but also was capable of fluorescing , indicating the correct folding of he with egfp in the hpr area , an analysis was carried out by confocal microscopy in infected ask cells . confocal microscopy showed cells that emit green fluorescence in all passages analyzed , increasing in each passage the abundance of fluorescent cells . these results suggest that the region of the he protein elected to incorporate egfp is not affected by the incorporation of this orf , thus allowing the generation of a chimeric recombinant isa virus capable of replicating , infecting and spreading in multiple passages without losing the ability to fluoresce . titration of the fourth blind passage made to isavr s6 - egfp - hpr virus by qrt - pcr in real time resulted in a titre of 3 . 63 × 10 6 copies seg 8 / ml and a value of 6 . 5 × 10 5 pfu / ml obtained by lysis plaque trial , showing a lysis plaque size similar to that observed after conducting plaque trial on isav901_09 wild virus . in order to determine whether by incorporating a sequence in the hpr area of the isavrs6 - egfp - hpr virus , this acquires the ability to infect other salmonid species or lose infectivity in permissive cells ( ask cells ), an infection kinetics was carried out in rtg - 2 , cse - 119 and ask cells . the ex vivo trial was conducted for 7 days using the fourth passage of the fluorescent recombinant virus and compared to the isav901_09 wild virus , and the fourth passage of a wild recombinant virus generated for this trial risav 901 _ 9 ( moi of 0 . 01 ). the analysis at 0 , 2 , 4 and 7 dpi by qrt - pcr quantifying the number of copies of segment 8 in each supernatant showed that none of the three viruses analyzed had the ability to replicate in rtg - 2 cells or in cse - 119 cells . in contrast , the infection kinetics carried out on ask cells showed that initially the isav 901_09 virus has a larger number of copies than recombinant viruses , risav 901 and risav s6 - egfp - hpr . on the second day after infection , however , an increase occurs in the number of copies of the recombinant viruses , reaching titres near 1 , 000 segment 8 / ml , with values similar to the wild virus . these results suggest that the incorporation of egfp in the hpr area of he protein does not alter the replicative behavior of the fluorescent recombinant virus in ask cells , and does not extend the host range at least in the ex vivo trials in rtg - 2 cells or in cse - 119 cells . these results can lead to the conclusion that it is possible to incorporate into the pss - urg plasmid a sequence encoding both for a viral protein and for an exogenous or chimeric protein , thus achieving the generation of a modified or chimeric recombinant isa virus ; these modifications would not alter or affect its infectious or propagation characteristics . functionality of pss - urg plasmid in salmon , swine and human cell lines to determine the ability of the pss - urg / s6 - noti - hpr vector for transcribing segment 6 as rnav , it was transfected into ask cells using fugene 6 ( promega ) at a 1 : 6 ratio and according to manufacturers &# 39 ; specifications . 0 hpt is considered as the time when adding the transfection mix to the cells . the initial incubation takes place for 3 hours at 16 ° c . f . once the incubation time had elapsed , the transfection mix was removed and the cells were washed twice with pbs , this being a 3 - hpt time . at each point of the transfection kinetics , which occurs at 0 , 3 , 6 , 9 , 12 and 15 hpt , the cells are removed for extraction of total rna , possible contaminating dna was removed with dnase i . with the rna obtained , rnav of segment 6 noti was detected by rt - pcr using specific primers for segment 6 noti . the analysis allows to observe a pcr product of expected 306 bps size from 3 hpt , which increases in intensity until 15 hpt ( fig3 ). therefore , it is proved that the pss - 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