Vaccinia virus gene F3L encodes an intracellular protein that affects the innate immune response
Froggatt GC., Smith GL., Beard PM.
The Vaccinia virus BTB/kelch protein F3 has been characterized and its effects on virus replicationin vitroand virus virulencein vivohave been determined. The loss of theF3Lgene had no effect on virus growth, plaque phenotype or cytopathic effect in cell culture under the conditions tested. However, the virulence of a virus lackingF3Lin an intradermal model was reduced compared with controls, and this was demonstrated by a significantly smaller lesion and alterations to the innate immune response to infection. The predicted molecular mass of the F3 protein is 56 kDa; however, immunoblotting of infected cell lysates using an antibody directed against recombinant F3 revealed two proteins of estimated sizes 37 and 25 kDa.