Recovery of duck hepatitis A virus 3 from a stable full-length infectious cDNA clone

Recently, duck hepatitis A virus 3 (DHAV-3) with genetically distinct characteristics from DHAV-1 and DHAV-2 was recognized in South Korea and China. In this short communication, we successfully constructed a stable full-length infectious cDNA clone derived from DHAV-3 by solving instability of cloned full-length cDNA in Escherichia coli (E. coli). The cDNA fragments amplified from the genome of DHAV-3 were assembled and inserted into a low-copy-number plasmid. Finally, a full-length cDNA clone containing an engineered SacII site that served as a genetic marker was obtained. The cDNA clone showed stable by serial passages in E. coli when propagated at 25°C under low level of antibiotic selection. BHK-21 cells were transfected with transcribed RNA from the full-length cDNA clone; infectious viral particles were rescued, showing its fatality to 10-day-old duck embryos. The results indicated that the constructed full-length cDNA clone of DHAV-3 is infectious. By various virological assays, our results indicated that the rescued virus exhibited similar biological properties with the parental virus. Animal experiments revealed that the rescued virus retained the high pathogenicity to 1-day-old ducklings and could induce a fatal hepatitis indistinguishable from its parental virus. Our present studies provide a useful tool for future research on genomic functions and molecular pathogenesis of DHAV-3.