Development of Stable Rotavirus Reporter Expression Systems

Engineered recombinant viruses expressing reporter genes have been developed for real-time monitoring of replication and for mass screening of antiviral inhibitors. Recently, we reported using a reverse genetics system to develop the first recombinant reporter rotaviruses (RVs) that expressed NanoLuc (NLuc) luciferase. Here, we describe a strategy for developing stable reporter RVs expressing luciferase and green or red fluorescent proteins. The reporter genes were inserted into the open reading frame of NSP1 and expressed as a fusion with an NSP1 peptide consisting of amino acids 1 to 27. The stability of foreign genes within the reporter RV strains harboring a shorter chimeric NSP1-reporter gene was greater than that of those in the original reporter RV strain, independent of the transgene inserted. The improved reporter RV was used to screen for neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Sequence analysis of escape mutants from one MAb clone (clone 29) identified an amino acid substitution (arginine to glycine) at position 441 in the VP4 protein, which resides within neutralizing epitope 5-1 in the VP5* fragment. Furthermore, to express a native reporter protein lacking NSP1 amino acids 1 to 27, the 5'- and 3'-terminal region sequences were modified to restore the predicted secondary RNA structure of the NSP1-reporter chimeric gene. These data demonstrate the utility of reporter RVs for live monitoring of RV infections and also suggest further applications (e.g., RV vaccine vectors, which can induce mucosal immunity against intestinal pathogens).IMPORTANCE Development of reporter RVs has been hampered by the lack of comprehensive reverse genetics systems. Recently, we developed a plasmid-based reverse genetics system that enables generation of reporter RVs expressing NLuc luciferase. The prototype reporter RV had some disadvantages (i.e., the transgene was unstable and was expressed as a fusion protein with a partial NSP1 peptide); however, the improved reporter RV overcomes these problems through modification of the untranslated region of the reporter-NSP1 chimeric gene. This strategy for generating stable reporter RVs could be expanded to diverse transgenes and be used to develop RV transduction vectors. Also, the data improve our understanding of the importance of 5'- and 3'-terminal sequences in terms of genome replication, assembly, and packaging.