Construction and characterization of an infectious molecular clone of novel duck reovirus

Novel duck reovirus (NDRV), the prototype strain of the species Avian orthoreovirus (ARV), is currently an infectious agent for ducks. Studies on NDRV replication and pathogenesis have been hampered by the lack of an available reverse-genetics system. In this study, a plasmid-based reverse-genetics system that is free of helper viruses has been developed. In this system, 10 full-length gene segments of wild-type NDRV TH11 strain are transfected into BSR-T7/5 cells that express bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase. Production of infectious virus was shown by the inoculation of cell lysate derived from transfected cells into 10-day-old duck embryos. The in vivo growth kinetics and infectivity of the recombinant strains were identical to those of the wild-type strain. These viruses grew well and were genetically stable both in vitro and in vivo. Altogether, these results show the successful production of an infectious clone for NDRV. The infectious clone reported will be further used to elucidate the mechanisms of host tropism, viral replication and pathogenesis, as well as immunological changes induced by NDRV.