African Swine Fever Virus DNA: Restriction Endonuclease Cleavage Patterns of Wild-type, Vero Cell-adapted and Plaque-purified Virus

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
DNA from African swine fever (ASF) virus was isolated and was characterized by 2 restriction enzymes, SmaI and EcoRI. Although both enzymes can distinguish African green monkey kidney Vero cell-adapted ASF isolates by characteristic restriction endonuclease cleavage patterns, all ASF isolates examined exhibited a high degree of similarity, as measured by co-migration of most of the DNA fragments. The MW of ASF DNA based on size estimates of DNA fragments from cleavage patterns, ranged from 93-100 .times. 106. Virus genome heterogeneity was observed in uncloned, cell culture-adapted ASF isolates and in a plaque-purified virus after serial passage in Vero cell. In contrast to the rather minor differences in restriction pattern among the Vero cell-adapted isolates, a major alteration in restriction endonuclease cleavage sites was observed during adaptation of the wild-type virus to cell culture.