Porcine alveolar macrophages host proteins interacting with African swine fever virus p72

Zhijun Weng; Xiaoyu Zheng; Yifan Liang; Xiongnan Chen; Qin Peng; Guihong Zhang; Lang Gong; Zezhong Zheng

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1370417

Porcine alveolar macrophages host proteins interacting with African swine fever virus p72

Front Microbiol. 2024 Feb 28:15:1370417. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1370417. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Zhijun Weng^{1

2}, Xiaoyu Zheng^{1

3}, Yifan Liang^{1

3}, Xiongnan Chen^{1

3}, Qin Peng^{1

3}, Guihong Zhang^{1

3

4}, Lang Gong^{1

3

4}, Zezhong Zheng^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Zoonosis Prevention and Control, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
² National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Animal Vaccine Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Maoming Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Maoming, China.

Abstract

Introduction: African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly contagious virus that spreads rapidly and has a mortality rate of up to 100% in domestic pigs, leading to significant economic losses in the pig industry. The major capsid protein p72 of ASFV plays a critical role in viral invasion and immune evasion.

Methods: In this study, we used yeast two-hybrid screening to identify host proteins interacting with p72 in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) and verified these proteins using confocal microscopy and immunoprecipitation techniques.

Results and discussion: We validated 13 proteins that interact with p72, including CD63, B2M, YTHDF2, FTH1, SHFL, CDK5RAP3, VIM, PELO, TIMP2, PHYH, C1QC, CMAS, and ERCC1. Enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network analysis of these interacting proteins revealed their involvement in virus attachment, invasion, replication, assembly, and immune regulation. These findings provide new insights into the function of p72 and valuable information for future research on the interaction between ASFV and host proteins.

Keywords: African swine fever virus; coimmunoprecipitation; confocal localization; p72; virus-host protein interaction; yeast two hybrid.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1800100), Start-up Research Project of Maoming Laboratory (2021TDQD002), and China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (cars-35).