Cloning and Expression of VP2 Gene of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus in Eukaryotic Cells

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an economically important viral disease of chickens with worldwide distribution which suppresses the immune system of young chickens. VP2 is the major host-protective protein of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). The encoding region of VP2 protein was PCR amplified from a plasmid containing a cDNA fragment of large genomic segment of IBDV, strain D78. This region of 1356 bp was inserted into a eukaryotic expression plasmid, pCDNA4, under the control of human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) immediate early enhancer and promoter. Plasmid DNA was transfected into COS-7 cell line and transient expression of VP2 from the constructed plasmid was characterized by dot blotting with a polyclonal antibody to IBDV.