High-Yield Expression and Purification of Recombinant σB Protein of Avian Reovirus (ARV) in Prokaryotic System

Avian reovirus (ARV) infection is a ubiquitous disease of poultry, affecting mostly broiler breeds. Pathogenic effects of ARV such as arthritis and tenosynovitis are attributed to significant economic losses to poultry industry. ARV is classified under genus Orthoreovirus of family Reoviridae (Van Regenmortel et al., 2000). The genome of ARV encodes at least ten structural proteins (λA, λB, λC, μA, μB, μBC, μBN, σC, σA and σB) and four non-structural proteins (μNS, P10, P17 and σNS) (Benavente and Martínez-Costas, 2007). Among these proteins, S3 gene-encoded σB is a major outer capsid protein of ARV, functioning in the induction of cell fusion and viral pathogenesis (Ni and Ramig, 1993). ARV σB protein is structurally similar to the σB protein of Duck reoviruses and Mammalian reoviruses (Vakharia et al., 1996; Yin et al., 1997) and share functional similarity with them. The σB protein is also known to induce group-specific International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 9 (2017) pp. 434-441 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com