LORF9 of Marek's disease virus is involved in the early cytolytic replication of B lymphocytes and can act as a target for gene deletion vaccine development.

Abstract

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a highly infectious and oncogenic virus that can induce severe T cell lymphomas in chickens. MDV encodes more than 100 genes, most of which have unknown functions. This work indicated that thegene is necessary for MDV early cytolytic replication in B lymphocytes. In addition, we have found that thedeletion mutant has a comparative immunological protective effect with CVI988/Rispens vaccine strain against very virulent MDV challenge. This is a significant discovery that LORF9 can be exploited as a possible target for the development of an MDV gene deletion vaccine.