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Review
. 2019 Sep 17;11(9):864.
doi: 10.3390/v11090864.

An Update on African Swine Fever Virology

Axel Karger  1 , Daniel Pérez-Núñez  2 , Jesús Urquiza  3 , Patricia Hinojar  4 , Covadonga Alonso  5 , Ferdinando B Freitas  6 , Yolanda Revilla  7 , Marie-Frédérique Le Potier  8 , Maria Montoya  9
Affiliations
Review

An Update on African Swine Fever Virology

Axel Karger et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Animal diseases constitute a continuing threat to animal health, food safety, national economy, and the environment. Among those, African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most devastating viruses affecting pigs and wild suids due to the lack of vaccine or effective treatment. ASF is endemic in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, but since its introduction to the Caucasus region in 2007, a highly virulent strain of ASF virus (ASFV) has continued to circulate and spread into Eastern Europe and Russia, and most recently into Western Europe, China, and various countries of Southeast Asia. Given the importance of this disease, this review will highlight recent discoveries in basic virology with special focus on proteomic analysis, replication cycle, and some recent data on genes involved in cycle progression and viral-host interactions, such as I215L (E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme), EP402R (CD2v), A104R (histone-like protein), QP509L, and Q706L (RNA helicases) or P1192R (Topoisomerase II). Taking into consideration the large DNA genome of ASFV and its complex interactions with the host, more studies and new approaches are to be taken to understand the basic virus-host interaction for ASFV. Proteomic studies are just paving the way for future research.

Keywords: African swine fever virus; proteomics; virology; virus–host interaction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representation of the genome of African swine fever virus (ASFV) strain OURT88/3. Predicted ORFs are color-coded according to the results of the MS analysis by Alejo et al. and Keßler et al. [14,15]. Orange and red: Multigene family (MGF) members or other open reading frames (ORFs) not identified in either study, respectively. Green: Structural proteins identified in both studies (dark) or by Alejo et al. only (light). Blue: Intracellular proteins identified by Keßler et al. only. As different virus strains were used in the studies, results from Alejo et al. were transferred to the homologous genes in OURT88/3.
Figure 2
Figure 2
COS cells were infected with ASFV-E70. At 16 hpi, cells were fixed and immuno-stained with α-γ-adaptin (AP-1) (green) and α-CD2v (red). Cellular nucleus and viral factory were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar represents 5 µm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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