Abstract
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) are two highly infectious and lethal viruses causing major economic losses to pig production. Here, we report generation of double-gene-knockout (DKO) pigs harboring edited knockout alleles for known receptor proteins CD163 and pAPN and show that DKO pigs are completely resistant to genotype 2 PRRSV and TGEV. We found no differences in meat-production or reproductive-performance traits between wild-type and DKO pigs, but detected increased iron in DKO muscle. Additional infection challenge experiments showed that DKO pigs exhibited decreased susceptibility to porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), thus offering unprecedented in vivo evidence of pAPN as one of PDCoV receptors. Beyond showing that multiple gene edits can be combined in a livestock animal to achieve simultaneous resistance to two major viruses, our study introduces a valuable model for investigating infection mechanisms of porcine pathogenic viruses that exploit pAPN or CD163 for entry.
Highlights
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a highly infectious viral disease characterized by reproductive disorders including premature birth, late abortion, stillbirth, weak and mummy fetuses, and respiratory dysfunction in piglets and in growing pigs (Wensvoort et al, 1991)
We found that these DKO pigs exhibit complete resistance to genotype 2 Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), and exhibit decreased susceptibility to porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) infection
Successful DKO colonies were cultured as donor cells for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) (Supplementary file 1)
Summary
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a highly infectious viral disease characterized by reproductive disorders including premature birth, late abortion, stillbirth, weak and mummy fetuses, and respiratory dysfunction in piglets and in growing pigs (Wensvoort et al, 1991). Since its discovery in the United States in 1987, PRRS has rapidly spread worldwide, with frequent outbreaks causing large economic losses (Holtkamp et al, 2013). Microbiology and Infectious Disease eLife digest Pig epidemics are the biggest threat to the pork industry. In 2019 alone, hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide were lost due to various pig diseases, many of them caused by viruses. The porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRS virus for short), for instance, leads to reproductive disorders such as stillbirths and premature labor. There are still no safe and effective methods to prevent or control these pig illnesses, but growing disease-resistant pigs could reduce both financial and animal losses
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