Cloning and identification of measles virus receptor gene from marmoset cells

The measles virus (MV) strains with mutated hemagglutinin gene (ha) lost the capacity to infect its sensitive host cells (Vero cells), but it may infect the marmoset B-lymphoblastoid cell line B95a. From above, we can presume that there is a novel cellular receptor for those measles virus strains on B95a cell s. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, we screened and cloned a novel gene--bip (B-lympho- blastoid interaction protein of marmoset) from B95a cell cDNA library, which encoded a protein interacting with measles virus hemagglutinin protein (Ha). The bip cDNA was 1540 base pairs in length and contained a unique open rea ding frame (ORF) of 1011 base pairs encoding a transmembrane protein of 337 amino acid residues. The primary structure of amino acids residue is predicted that the Bip comprised a hydrophobic transmembrane domain and a hydrophobic leader region. The researches about the deletion mutants showed that the deletion of tran smembrane domain in Bip did not affect the interaction between Bip and Ha protei ns. Expression of bip in measles virus non-permissive cell line--CHO (Chinese hamster ovary) cells was performed to prove that CHO/Bip can be infected by meas les virus and then turned to the MV permissive cells. We concluded that the bip gene is a novel measles virus receptor gene in marmoset B-lymphoblastoid cells.