A novel and simple method for rapid generation of recombinant porcine adenoviral vectors for transgene expression

Many human (different serotypes) and nonhuman adenovirus vectors are being used for gene delivery. However, the current system for isolating recombinant adenoviral vectors is either time-consuming or expensive, especially for the generation of recombinant non-human adenoviral vectors. We herein report a new and simple cloning approach for the rapid generation of a porcine adenovirus (PAdV-3) vector which shows promise for gene transfer to human cells and evasion of human adenovirus type 5 (HAdV-5) immunity. Based on the final cloning plasmid, pFPAV3-CcdB-Cm, and our modified SLiCE strategy (SLiCE cloning and lethal CcdB screening), the process for generating recombinant PAdV-3 plasmids required only one step in 3 days, with a cloning efficiency as high as 620 ± 49.56 clones/ng and zero background (100% accuracy). The recombinant PAdV-3 plasmids could be successfully rescued in porcine retinal pigment epithelium cells (VR1BL), which constitutively express the HAdV-5 E1 and PAdV-3 E1B 55k genes, and the foreign genes were highly expressed at 24 h after transduction into swine testicle (ST) cells. In conclusion, this strategy for generating recombinant PAdV-3 vectors based on our modified SLiCE cloning system was rapid and cost-efficient, which could be used as universal cloning method for modification the other regions of PAdV-3 genome as well as other adenoviral genomes.