The MGF360-16R ORF of African Swine Fever Virus Strain Georgia Encodes for a Nonessential Gene That Interacts with Host Proteins SERTAD3 and SDCBP

African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a contagious and frequently lethal disease of pigs with significant economic consequences to the swine industry. The ASFV genome encodes for more than 160 genes, but only a few of them have been studied in detail. Here we report the characterization of open reading frame (ORF) MGF360-16R. Kinetic studies of virus RNA transcription demonstrated that the MGF360-16R gene is transcribed as a late virus protein. Analysis of host–protein interactions for the MGF360-16R gene using a yeast two-hybrid screen identified SERTA domain containing 3 (SERTAD3) and syndecan-binding protein (SDCBP) as host protein binding partners. SERTAD3 and SDCBP are both involved in nuclear transcription and SDCBP has been shown to be involved in virus traffic inside the host cell. Interaction between MGF360-16R and SERTAD3 and SDCBP host proteins was confirmed in eukaryotic cells transfected with plasmids expressing MGF360-16R and SERTAD3 or SDCBP fused to fluorescent tags. A recombinant ASFV lacking the MGF360-16R gene (ASFV-G-ΔMGF360-16R) was developed from the highly virulent field isolate Georgia2007 (ASFV-G) and was used to show that MGF360-16R is a nonessential gene. ASFV-G-ΔMGF360-16R had a similar replication ability in primary swine macrophage cell cultures when compared to its parental virus ASFV-G. Experimental infection of domestic pigs showed that ASFV-G-ΔMGF360-16R is as virulent as the parental virus ASFV-G.