Georgia
Veterinary Scholar
Program

Construction of a horse genomic DNA cosmid library.

Flaviviruses are a significant cause of animal and human disease in the world. A flavivirus resistance gene (Flv) has been discovered in mice that is believed to encode a host cell protein involved in virus replication. Positional cloning has identified two possible candidates for the resistance gene in mice. Since flaviviruses infect a variety of hosts, it follows that the gene would be evolutionarily conserved. For this reason, a cosmid library of horse genomic DNA is being constructed to study polymorphisms of the horse genes that are homologues to the mouse putative resistance genes. Many horses that are infected with West Nile Virus, a flavivirus, recover or show no clinical signs. It is possible that the same gene that confers resistance in mice also confers resistance in horses. The cosmid library construction will allow screening for the genes of interest. Blood samples from West Nile Virus (WNV) infected horses that survived the 1999 outbreak in the northeastern U. S. are available for comparison. If the same gene as the murine Flv gene is responsible for the survival of WNV infected horses, differences should be found in the gene between asymptomatic, infected individuals, and those that are infected and show clinical signs.