Diagnosis of nervous necrosis virus in orange-spotted grouper,Epinephelus coioides, by a rapid and convenient RT-PCR method

Viral nervous necrosis （VNN） causes high mortality in marine fish, especially in the grouper, worldwide and in China. Since there is no effective vaccine or drug to deal with VNN, early detection and prevention is important to block its outbreak. In this study, a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR） was developed for the rapid, convenient, and sensitive detection of the VNN pathogen, nervous necro- sis virus （NNV）, in the grouper. The whole process was completed within 3.5 h from the RNA extraction to PCR product visualization. The detection limit of this method was 200 copies of NNV RNA standard, which corresponded to 200 copies of virus particles. This RT-PCR method was specific to the NNV detection with no cross-reactivity to other fish viral disease pathogens, such as infectious pancreatic necrosis virus （IPNV）, infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus （IHNV）, spring viraemia of carp virus （SVCV）, epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus （EHNV）, and large yellow croaker iridovirus （LYC1V）. With this method, the orange-spotted grouper （Epinephelus coioides） fry from hatcheries with or without incidence of the VN- N epidemic in Fujian Province were detected. The results showed that all or 93% of the fry from the two hatcheries with incidence of the epidemic were diagnosed as positive, while 40% or 25% of fry from the t- wo hatcheries without the VNN epidemic were also detected as NNV positive, indicating that this RT-PCR method can be used for rapid, sensitive detection of NNV infection and applied in the VNN epidemic alert.

Protective immunity of orange-spotted grouper(Epinephelus coioids) against a nervous necrosis virus isolated from China,and determination of the complete sequences of the virus

On the basis of the sequence and analysis of genome from the orange-spotted nervous necrosis virus（ OGNNV）, China strain, a pair of special primers were designed according to the nucleotide sequences of RNA2 from OGNNV. The major capsid protein （ MCP）gene of OGNNV was cloned by means of reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR） and ligated into the pET32a expression plasmid. The MCP gene of OGNNV was 1 017 bases, encoded a protein of 338 amino acid with a molecular mass of 37.1 kDa. Recombinant protein with a molecular mass of 57.4 kDa was expressed in E. coli BL21 （DE3）. Vaccine was prepared from the recombinant protein expressed in recombinant cells. The juvenile orange-spotted groupers （8 cm in average length） were immunized by intraperitoneal injection. Group A was challenged with infected tissue filtrates 25 d post-vaccination. The mortality in the vaccined group （ A1,30% ） was a little higher than the unvaccined group （ B2, 27.8% ）. Group B was challenged after three vaccine injections. The mortality in the vaccined group （B1, 16.7% ） was lower than the unvaccined group （132, 27.8% ）, And the relative percentage survival （RPS） value of vaccined group, compared with the unvaccined group, was 40%. The anti-recombinant protein sera with a 1 ： 100 dilution were mixed with double volume of infected tissue filtrates and incubated at 4 ℃ for 12 h and then intramuscularly injected into the juvenile orange-spotted grouper. Treatment of infected tissue filtrates with anti-recombinant protein serum resulted in a significantly lower mortality of fish （ Group C1, mortality of 18.18% ）, compared with the fish （ Group C2, mortality of 40% ） which received infected tissue filtrates treated with control serum. Results implied the potential use of the capsid protein in immunization against OGNNV.

Establishment of Real-time Fluorescent RT-LAMP Detection Method for Grouper Nervous Necrosis Virus

Nervous necrosis virus （NNV） is the causative agent of fulminant infectious diseases in marine fishes such as grouper. Specific primers were designed based on the conserved sequence of capsid protein （CP） gene of red-spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus （NNV）. By optimizing the reaction conditions, a rapid and simple reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification （RT-LAMP） method was established for NNV detection. After adding SYTO-9 fluorescent dye in the reaction system, the amplification curve was monitored in real time using a fluorescence detector, and the result was obviously easy to assess. Moreover, the specificity and sensitivity of the established method was analyzed. The results showed that the established RT-LAMP method has good specificity with a detection limit of 1.3 pg/μl. The detection sensitivity of the established RT-LAMP method is 100 times that of the conventional RT-PCR method, and the detection duration is only 40 min. The established RT-LAMP method is suitable for quarantine and rapid detection of grouper nervous necrosis virus.

Establishment and Characterization of a Fin Cell Line Derived from the Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar and Its Application to Fish Virology Study

Atlantic salmon(Salmo salar)is an important economic fish that is seriously threatened by various viruses.A cell line designated as ASF derived from the caudal fin tissue of Atlantic salmon was established and characterized in this study.ASF cells grew well in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium(DMEM)containing 20%fetal bovine serum at 20℃.DNA sequencing and comparative analysis of the cytochrome B gene verified that the ASF cell line originated from Atlantic salmon.Chromosome analysis indicated that the modal chromosome number of ASF cells was 58.Viral susceptibility test showed that ASF cells were susceptive to two important fish viruses,viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus(VHSV)and red-spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus(RGNNV).Viral replication in ASF cells was further confirmed by qRT-PCR and transmission electron microscopy.Moreover,VHSV and RGNNV infections could induce the cellular responses in ASF cells,as indicated by the differential expression of cellular antiviral response-related genes,interferon-1 and Mx-1.In conclusion,the newly established ASF cell line can be applied as an in vitro tool in fish virology and immunity studies.