Identification, Characterization, and In Vitro Culture of Highly Divergent Arenaviruses from Boa Constrictors and Annulated Tree Boas: Candidate Etiological Agents for Snake Inclusion Body Disease

Stenglein, Mark D.; Sanders, Chris; Kistler, Amy L.; Ruby, J. Graham; Franco, Jessica Y.; Reavill, Drury R.; Dunker, Freeland; DeRisi, Joseph L.

We next developed and validated an antibody against the viral nucleoprotein as an additional tool to study the virus and its relationship to disease. This polyclonal antibody was raised in rabbits against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the C-terminal 14 residues of the NP encoded by GGV. We chose this antigen for several reasons. First, for previously described arenaviruses, NP is the most abundant viral protein in infected cells and is the most antigenic viral protein in vivo (21) . Second, the predicted molecular mass of this protein (67 kDa) is similar to the reported mass (68 kDa) of an abundant protein specific to IBD-positive tissues (5) . Furthermore, the NP of other arenaviruses is reported to localize to intracytoplasmic inclusions in infected cells (40, 41) .