Hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (HHS) caused by the highly pathogenic fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4) has resulted in huge economic losses to the poultry industry globally. The fiber-2 gene, as a major virulence determiner, is also an important vaccine target against FAdV-4. In this study, we used a CRISPR/Cas9-based homology-dependent recombinant technique to replace the fiber-2 gene with egfp and generate a novel recombinant virus, designated FAdV4-EGFP-rF2. Although FAdV4-EGFP-rF2 showed low replication ability compared to the wild-type FAdV-4 in LMH cells, FAdV4-EGFP-rF2 could effectively replicate in LMH-F2 cells with the expression of Fiber-2. Moreover, FAdV4-EGFP-rF2 was not only highly attenuated in chickens, but also could provide efficient protection against a lethal challenge of FAdV-4. Moreover, FAdV4-EGFP-rF2 without fiber-2 could induce neutralizing antibodies at the same level as FA4-EGFP with fiber-2. These results clearly demonstrate that although fiber-2 affects the viral replication and pathogenesis of FAdV-4, it is not necessary for virus replication and induction of neutralizing antibodies; these findings provide novel insights into the roles of fiber-2 and highlight fiber-2 as an insertion site for generating live-attenuated FAdV-4 vaccines against FAdV-4 and other pathogens. IMPORTANCE Among all serotypes of fowl adenovirus, serotypes FAdV-1, FAdV-4, and FAdV-10 are unique members with two fiber genes (fiber-1 and fiber-2). Recent studies reveal that Fiber-1, not Fiber-2, directly triggers viral infection of FAdV-4, whereas Fiber-2, but not Fiber-1, has been identified as the major virulence determiner and an efficient protective immunogen for subunit vaccines. Here, we replaced fiber-2 with egfp to generate a novel recombinant virus, designated FAdV4-EGFP-rF2. In vitro and in vivo studies on FAdV4-EGFP-rF2 revealed that fiber-2 was not necessary for either virus replication or efficient protection for FAdV-4; these results not only provide a novel live-attenuated vaccine candidate against HHS, but also give new ideas for generating a FAdV-4 based vaccine vector against other pathogens.
Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; FAdV-4; deletion of fiber-2; pathogenesis; protection; virus rescuing.