Journal of General Virology, Vol 78, 1065-1075, Copyright © 1997 by Society for General Microbiology

ARTICLES

Mapping of the target antigens of the rotavirus-specific cytotoxic T cell response

RR Heath, S Stagg, F Xu and MA McCrae
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.

The cytotoxic T cell (CTL) response in C57/B16 (H-2b) mice to rotavirus has been analysed using a cognate set of vaccinia virus recombinants covering the 12 primary gene products of the UKtc strain of bovine rotavirus. The gene products of RNA segments 5 (VP5/NSP-1) and 8 (VP7) both elicited a classic CD8+ Class I MHC restricted CTL response. Using L cells transfected with specific Class I MHC loci as targets the VP5/NSP-1 response was found to be restricted at Db and the VP7 response at Kb. Vaccinia virus recombinants expressing VP7 genes from seven G serotypes were used to show that the CTL response to this antigen is completely cross-reactive. By contrast, using the same strategy the CTL response to VP5/NSP-1 was found to be virus strain specific. A vaccinia virus recombinant carrying RNA segment 5 from the deletion mutant P9D delta 5 was used to localize at least one CTL epitope in VP5/ NSP-1 to the first 150 amino acids of the protein. The expression of a number of fragments of VP7 in vaccinia virus recombinants was used to show that the CTL epitope (amino acids 31-40) previously identified through the use of synthetic peptides is virus serotype specific rather than cross-reactive.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. C. Jaimes, N. Feng, and H. B. Greenberg Characterization of Homologous and Heterologous Rotavirus-Specific T-Cell Responses in Infant and Adult Mice J. Virol., April 15, 2005; 79(8): 4568 - 4579. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]