Characterization and functional studies of fowl adenovirus 9 dUTPase

Deoxyuridine 5′-triphosphate pyrophosphatase (dUTPase), a ubiquitous enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of dUTP to dUMP and found in many viruses, has yet to be identified in fowl adenovirus 9 (FAdV-9). By a multiple alignment of dUTPase amino acid sequences, FAdV-9 ORF1 contained the five conserved motifs that define the protein family, and encoded a functional dUTPase. Moreover, transcription and protein expression patterns were characterized, indicating that dUTPase was transcribed from 2 h post-infection (h.p.i.) and translated from 6 h.p.i., and both continued to the late phase of virus infection. An HA-tagged dUTPase recombinant virus was generated, and dUTPase was found to be localized in both the cytoplasm and nucleus in chicken hepatoma cells (CH-SAH). A dUTPase knockout virus was generated and compared with the wild-type virus, showing that dUTPase upregulated the expression of type I interferons, but was not required for viral DNA or virus replication in CH-SAH cells.