Transduction of avian cells with recombinant baculovirus

Transduction of chicken and duck cells was examined by Ac-CMV-eGFP, a recombinant baculovirus capable of expressing an eGFP reporter gene under the control of the CMV promoter. The results showed that chicken and duck cells were transducible, as demonstrated by a flow cytometry assay. The transduction efficiency of duck cells was higher than that of chicken cells. The addition of histone deacetylase inhibitor sodium butyrate enhanced the expression levels of eGFP both in chicken and duck cells. Ac-CMV-eGFP is capable of transducing genes into a variety of chicken cells in organs such as liver, lung and kidney. Of three cells from different organs tested, the highest transduction was observed in lung cells (49.8%), followed by kidney cells (44%) and liver cells (43%). Only in chicken liver cells AcMNPV transduction was in a dose-dependent manner. It also showed that baculovirus enters the avian cells by endocytosis and is released into the cytoplasm by acid-induced fusion.