Reverse genetics system for Chandipura virus: Tagging the viral matrix protein with green fluorescent protein

- Novel reverse genetics system for Chandipura virus, an emerging arbovirus.
- Infectious virus was rescued from full-length cDNA.
- An extra gene encoding GFP was stably added to the virus between the M and G genes.
- The viral M gene was successfully replaced by a gene for the GFP-M fusion protein.
- The GFP-M virus showed impaired growth and was unstable to deletion of the GFP region.