Cloning and expression of bovine herpesvirus-1 glycoprotein C

Glycoprotein C (gC) of Bovine Herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) is expressed at high levels on surface of infected cells and on virus envelope. It is relatively immunodominant in antibody response to BHV-1 infection and protective in immunized bovines against BHV-1 challenge. In an attempt to express gC in mammalian cells, the 2.4 kb BamHI-EcoRI fragment, containing complete coding sequence of the gC gene was excised from a recombinant plasmid and cloned under the control of RSV-LTR. The resultant plasmid pRSV-gC was transfected into MDBK cells and expression of gC was detected by indirect immunofluorescence. The non-permeabilized cells revealed surface expression of gC.