Abstract: 【Objective】Compared with duck enteritis virus(DEV) virulent strain, the vaccine strain has a 528 bp deletions at the UL2, resulting to a 176 aa deletion after amino acids 65. To study the effect of UL2 gene on virus biological properties and explore the feasibility of the DEV as a carrier to express foreign gene, a recombinant DEV expressing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) were constructed;【Method】In this study, the UL2 gene of DEV was chosen as a target site and homologous arm for recombination. Two fragments of UL2 gene were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with DNA of DEV cell-adapted strain as template, and were cloned into the pMD-18T vector. The expression cassette including GFP gene and gpt gene controlled by CMV promoter was cloned into UL2 gene as a transfer vector pT-UL2-GFP-gpt. Confluent CEF monolayers were transfected with DEV and Lipofectamine 2000 was used as the transfer vector. When the cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed, the total supernatant and cells were harvested. The infected virus was diluted and then plated on the fresh CEF, and overlaid with M199-FBS containing 1% agarose. When green fluorescent plaques were observed, plaque-purification was carried out to obtain a green fluorescent plaque population termed rDEV-△UL2-GFP-gpt, PCR and sequencing assay were used to identify the recombinant virus. CEF cells cultured in 25cm2 flasks were inoculated with recombinant virus at an MOI of 0.01. The cells and supernatants were harvested respectively every 12 hours, the titer of virus were measured and the one-step growth analyses was performed; To evaluate the genetic stability of GFP gene in the recombinant virus, the virus was passaged in primary CEF 20 times. Four-week-old specific- pathogen-free (SPF) ducks were inoculated intramuscularly with the recombinant virus, and the ducks were challenged with lethal DEV (CVCC AV1221) by intramuscular injection at 14 days post vaccination, then the ducks were observed for symptom of disease and death.【Result】The recombinant expression vector pT-UL2-GFP-gpt was correctly constructed, identified by double-enzyme digestion. After 8 hours of transfection, spindle cells with green fluorescent were appeared. After 8 rounds of plaque-purification, the purified rDEV-△UL2-GFP-gpt were obtained. The results of the PCR and sequencing indicated that the GFP expression cassette has already successfully insert into the DEV genome, which replaced 196-723 nucleotide of UL2. The recombinant virus possessed growth kinetics were similar to that of the parental virus, the cell titer peaked at 36 hours with the peak titer 106.2TCID50/0.1mL, and the supernatant titer peaked at 72 hours with the peak titer 105.5TCID50/0.1mL. The virus were passaged in CEF cells 20 times, the GFP gene was stably maintained in 1st to 5th passages, however, from the 6th passage, there was little CPE without green fluorescent, and in 15th to 20th passages, most CPE had no green fluorescent, GFP mutated during subculture. All immunized animals were protected against subsequent challenge with lethal DEV, the insertion of the GFP gene did not alter the protective efficacy of parental virus. 【Conclusion】In this research, the recombinant DEV expressing the green fluorescent protein were successfully constructed, and firstly has confirmed that the deletion of UL2 gene has no effect on virus replication in cells and the immunogenicity in ducks. This study laid a foundation for the research of the function of the DEV UL2 gene and the DEV vector vaccine.

Key words: duck enteritis virus, UL2 gene , GFP, recombinant virus