Comparative proteomic analysis of PK-15 cells infected with wild-type strain and its EP0 gene-deleted mutant strain of pseudorabies virus.

Importance: As one of the main etiologic agents of infectious diseases in pigs, pseudorabies virus (PRV) infections have caused enormous economic losses worldwide. EP0, one of the PRV early proteins (EP) plays a vital role in PRV infections, but the mechanisms are unclear.

Objective: This study examined the function of EP0 to provide a direction for its in-depth analysis.

Methods: In this study, the EP0-deleted PRV mutant was obtained, and Tandem Mass Tag-based proteomic analysis was used to screen the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) quantitatively in EP0-deleted PRV- or wild-type PRV-infected porcine kidney 15 cells.

Results: This study identified 7,391 DEPs, including 120 and 21 up-regulated and down-regulated DEPs, respectively. Western blot analysis confirmed the changes in the expression of the selected proteins, such as speckled protein 100. Comprehensive analysis revealed 141 DEPs involved in various biological processes and molecular functions, such as transcription regulator activity, biological regulation, and localization.

Conclusions and relevance: These results holistically outlined the functions of EP0 during a PRV infection and might provide a direction for more detailed function studies of EP0 and the stimulation of lytic PRV infections.