Cloning and expression of VP2 gene of infectious bursal disease virus in eukaryotic cells

Infectious bursal disease [IBD] is an economically important viral disease of chickens with worldwide distribution which suppresses the immune system of young chickens. VP2 is the major host-protective protein of infectious bursal disease virus [IBDV]. The encoding region of VP2 protein was PCR amplified from a plasmid containing a cDNA fragment of large genomic segment of IBDV, strain D78. This region of 1356 bp was inserted into a eukaryotic expression plasmid, pCDNA4, under the control of human cytomegalovirus [hCMV] immediate early enhancer and promoter. Plasmid DNA was transfected into COS-7 cell line and transient expression of VP2 from the constructed plasmid was characterized by dot blotting with a polyclonal antibody to IBDV