Development of a VP28-pseudotyped baculovirus expression system for efficient gene transfer in penaeid shrimps

Abstract Both efficient gene transfer and expression tools and suitable reporter genes are lacking for penaeid shrimps and their isolated cells. In this study a VP28-pseudotyped insect baculovirus expression system: Bacmid-GUS/VP28, carrying a reporter gene of GUS (β-glucuronidase) and an exogenous envelope protein of VP28 from shrimp white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), has been successfully developed for the first time and well used for efficient gene transfer and expression in adult shrimps with an extremely high infection efficiency of up to 100%, but in a tissue-specific manner because it could only infect the adult tissues of gill, heart and intestine, but not the Oka organ and muscle under the tested infection doses. The aforementioned VP28-pseudotyped recombinant baculovirus of Bacmid-GUS/VP28 could also infect the primarily cultured hemolymph cells of shrimp (Metapenaeus ensiss) and produced strong GUS signals with a relatively low efficiency of 1.21%, but failed in the primary embryonic cells of shrimp (Penaeus japonicus), showing an obvious cell-specificity. A possible explanation for the above- mentioned low infection efficiency is the occurrence of mitosis-arrest in the infected shrimp cells. In contrast, no obvious GUS signals could be detected in any of the uninfected and wild type recombinant baculovirus (Bacmid-GUS)-infected tissues and cells of adult shrimps, confirming the suitability of GUS as a reporter gene and the great contribution of VP28 to the tissue- and cell- tropism of pseudotyped recombinant baculovirus (Bacmid-GUS/VP28) in penaeid shrimps. In a word, the successful development of VP28-pseudotyped recombinant baculovirus system will provide us a useful tool for efficient gene transfer and expression in adult shrimps as well as an assay system for the examination of the contribution of different WSSV envelope proteins to the viral tissue tropism.