The NSm proteins of Rift Valley fever virus are dispensable for maturation, replication and infection

Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus belongs to the Bunyaviridae family of segmented negative-strand RNA viruses and causes mosquito-borne disease in sub-Saharan Africa. We report the development of a T7 RNA polymerase-driven plasmid-based genetic system for the virulent Egyptian isolate, ZH501. We have used this system to rescue a virus that has a 387 nucleotide deletion on the genomic M segment that eliminates the coding region for two non-structural proteins known as NSm. This virus, ΔNSm rZH501, is indistinguishable from the parental ZH501 strain with respect to expression of structural proteins and growth in cultured mammalian cells.