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A DN-mda5 transgenic zebrafish model demonstrates that Mda5 plays an important role in snakehead rhabdovirus
K A Gabor1, J R Charette2, M J Pietraszewski2
1Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA; Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.
Abstract:
Melanoma Differentiation-Associated protein 5 (MDA5) is a member of the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor (RLR) family, which is a cytosolic pattern recognition receptor that detects viral nucleic acids. Here we show an Mda5-dependent response to rhabdovirus infection in vivo using a dominant-negative mda5 transgenic zebrafish. Dominant-negative mda5 zebrafish embryos displayed an impaired antiviral immune response compared to wild-type counterparts that can be rescued by recombinant full-length Mda5. To our knowledge, we have generated the first dominant-negative mda5 transgenic zebrafish and demonstrated a critical role for Mda5 in the antiviral response to rhabdovirus.
