Monoclonal antibodies against porcine group C rotavirus VP6

Rotaviruses have been known to be a major etiological agent of gastroenteritis in both infants and young animals. Subsequently new rotaviruses, which were morphologically indistinguishable but antigenically and electrophoretically distinct with each other, were reported from several animals throughout world including Korea. These new rotaviruses were named as non-group A or group B or group C rotaviruses and so on. It has been very difficult to isolate and grow the non-group A rotaviruses in vitro, and this has greatly limited the characterizations of non-group A rotaviruses and serological studies. In this study, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against porcine non-group A rotavirus were produced and characterized. The VP6 gene of porcine group C rotavirus Korean isolate(#06-52-1) was cloned and expressed. For expression of VP6 gene, baculovirus expression system was applied. The VP6 gene and expressed protein in the recombinant virus were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), indirect fluorescence antibody (IFA) test and Western blot, respectively. The expressed VP6 was used for MAbs production. The MAbs produced in this study would be promising as diagnostic reagents for detection of group C rotavirus infection.