A glycoprotein I- and glycoprotein E-deficient mutant of infectious laryngotracheitis virus exhibits impaired cell-to-cell spread in cultured cells

Abstract

In alphaherpesviruses, glycoprotein I (gI) and glycoprotein E (gE) form a heterodimer that functions in cell-to-cell spread of the virus. Generally, alphaherpesvirus mutants that lack these glycoproteins are replication competent in cell culture but show a reduced capacity for cell-to-cell spread and hence smaller plaque sizes. Infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV), or Gallid herpesvirus 1, is an alphaherpesvirus that causes respiratory disease in chickens. The roles of gI and gE in ILTV have not been investigated previously. In this study, a glycoprotein I and glycoprotein E deletion mutant of ILTV (gI/gE-ve ILTV) was generated by replacing the region of the ILTV genome coding for the a..