Bovine Mx1 enables resistance against foot-and-mouth disease virus in naturally susceptible cells by inhibiting the replication of viral RNA.

Innate immunity, especially the anti-viral genes, exerts an important barrier function in preventing viral infections. Myxovirus-resistant (Mx) gene take an anti-viral role, whereas its effects on foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in naturally susceptible cells are still unclear. The bovine primary fetal tracheal epithelial cell line BPTE-siMx1, in which bovine Mx1 gene was silenced, was established and treated with IFN alpha for 6 hr before FMDV infection. The copy numbers of the negative and positive strand viral RNA were determined by strand-specific real-time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR. The TCID50 of BPTE-siMx1 cells increased at least 17-fold as compared to control cells BPTE-LacZ at 8 hr post infection, thus silencing of bovine Mx1 could promote the replication of FMDV. The amount of both the negative and positive strand viral RNA in BPTE-siMx1 cells significantly increased as compared to BPTE-LacZ cells, indicating that the replication levels of viral RNA were promoted by silencing bovine Mx1. The bovine Mx1 gene could provide resistance against FMDV in the bovine primary fetal tracheal epithelial cells via suppressing the replication of viral RNA.