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.
Highlights
Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, accounting for more than one-third of meat produced worldwide
Results from siRNA experiments clarified that pI215L is involved in the late viral transcription as I215L downregulation lead to the reduction of the number of B646L transcripts, a decreased number of African swine fever virus (ASFV) genomes, and a reduced viral progeny. These new insights suggest that ASFV genome replication, viral late transcription, and progeny production are mediated through the ubiquitin pathway [66], corroborating previous studies showing the importance of the ubiquitin–proteasome system during the infection [32]
PA104R has the capability to supercoil DNA in the presence of ASFV topoisomerase II [74,75]. This activity is described in bacterial histone-like proteins [76,77] and in some viral proteins involved in genome packaging [78,79], suggesting that pA104R may be involved in ASFV genome packaging, which is supported by the distribution of pA104R over the central nucleoid structure [69,80]
Summary
Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, accounting for more than one-third of meat produced worldwide. Infectious diseases affecting pigs threaten an important source of high-quality protein, and the globalization of the swine industry has contributed to the emergence and spread of pathogens Among those pathogens, African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been, since its discovery in the early years of last century, one of the main concerns in pig industry [1]. ASFV is endemic in most sub-Saharan countries [2], but since its introduction in Georgia (2007), ASFV has spread quickly to other neighboring countries in Europe [3] and Asia This is of particular concern in the case of China, producing half of the world’s pig population, where it was first reported in 2018 [4]. This review will focus on the recent discoveries in ASFV virology and the gaps of knowledge in the field
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