Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

A Simple and Efficient Approach to Construct Mutant Vaccinia Virus Vectors
Published on: October 30, 2016
Alteration of encephalomyocarditis virus pathogenicity due to a mutation at position 100 of VP1
Shu Zhu1, XinNa Ge, XiaoWen Gong
1Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine and State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) infection leads to many diseases including encephalitis, myocarditis and diabetes in its natural host, the mouse. In this study, we generated four cDNA clones with a point mutation at position 100 of VP1. The amino acids isoleucine, alanine, serine and proline were substituted with threonine in the four different clones of EMCV strain BJC3 by site-specific mutagenesis, and viable viruses were rescued. Although all mutants and wild-type viruses display different plaque morphologies, they replicate comparably in BHK-21 cells. The pathogenicity of the mutated viruses was systematically analyzed to investigate the importance of this amino acid in the viral pathogenicity and disease phenotype of EMCV infection in mice. The results showed that the isoleucine- (T1100I) and proline-mutated viruses (T1100P) exhibited a reduced mortality, lower cerebral virus loads and alleviated brain damage while the viruses with serine (T1100S) and alanine (T1100A) substitutions displayed similar properties as the wild-type virus. These findings indicate that the amino acid at position 100 of VP1 is important for EMCV in vivo infection, and its mutation alters the pathogenicity of viral infection in mice.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Encephalitis ll: Pathophysiology
Viral Mutations
Mutations
Mutations
Chromosomal Alterations Are Large-Scale Mutations
While point mutations are changes in a single nucleotide in...
Mutations
Point and Frameshift Mutations

