Characteristics of the Life Cycle of Porcine Deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) In Vitro: Replication Kinetics, Cellular Ultrastructure and Virion Morphology, and Evidence of Inducing Autophagy
Pan Qin,
En-Zhong Du,
Wen-Ting Luo,
Yong-Le Yang,
Yu-Qi Zhang,
Bin Wang,
Yao-Wei Huang
Affiliations
Pan Qin
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
En-Zhong Du
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Wen-Ting Luo
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yong-Le Yang
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yu-Qi Zhang
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Bin Wang
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yao-Wei Huang
Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) causes severe diarrhea and vomiting in affected piglets. The aim of this study was to establish the basic, in vitro characteristics of the life cycle such as replication kinetics, cellular ultrastructure, virion morphology, and induction of autophagy of PDCoV. Time-course analysis of viral subgenomic and genomic RNA loads and infectious titers indicated that one replication cycle of PDCoV takes 5 to 6 h. Electron microscopy showed that PDCoV infection induced the membrane rearrangements with double-membrane vesicles and large virion-containing vacuoles. The convoluted membranes structures described in alpha- and beta-coronavirus were not observed. PDCoV infection also increased the number of autophagosome-like vesicles in the cytoplasm of cells, and the autophagy response was detected by LC3 I/II and p62 Western blot analysis. For the first time, this study presents the picture of the PDCoV infection cycle, which is crucial to help elucidate the molecular mechanism of deltacoronavirus replication.
