@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.049981-0, author = "Elliott, Richard M. and Blakqori, Gjon and van Knippenberg, Ingeborg C. and Koudriakova, Elina and Li, Ping and McLees, Angela and Shi, Xiaohong and Szemiel, Agnieszka M.", title = "Establishment of a reverse genetics system for Schmallenberg virus, a newly emerged orthobunyavirus in Europe", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "2013", volume = "94", number = "4", pages = "851-859", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.049981-0", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.049981-0", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is a newly emerged orthobunyavirus that has caused widespread disease in cattle, sheep and goats in Europe. Like other orthobunyaviruses, SBV is characterized by a tripartite negative-sense RNA genome that encodes four structural and two non-structural proteins. This study showed that SBV has a wide in vitro host range, and that BHK-21 cells are a convenient host for both SBV propagation and assay by plaque titration. The SBV genome segments were cloned as cDNA and a three-plasmid rescue system was established to recover infectious virus. Recombinant virus behaved similarly in cell culture to authentic virus. The ORF for the non-structural NSs protein, encoded on the smallest genome segment, was disrupted by introduction of translation stop codons in the appropriate cDNA, and when this plasmid was used in reverse genetics, a recombinant virus that lacked NSs expression was recovered. This virus had reduced capacity to shut-off host-cell protein synthesis compared with the wild-type virus. In addition, the NSs-deleted virus induced interferon (IFN) in cells, indicating that, like other orthobunyaviruses, NSs functions as an IFN antagonist, most probably by globally inhibiting host-cell metabolism. The development of a robust reverse genetics system for SBV will facilitate investigation of its pathogenic mechanisms as well as the creation of attenuated strains that could be candidate vaccines.", }