McCormick, K.Jiang, Z.Zhu, L.Lawson, S. R.Langenhorst, R.Ransburgh, R.Brunick, C.Tracy, M. C.Hurtig, H. R.Mabee, L. M.Mingo, M.Li, Y.Webby, R. J.Huber, V. C.Fang, Ying2016-04-042016-04-042015-06-10http://hdl.handle.net/2097/32280Citation: McCormick, K., Jiang, Z., Zhu, L., Lawson, S. R., Langenhorst, R., Ransburgh, R., . . . Fang, Y. (2015). Construction and immunogenicity evaluation of recombinant influenza A viruses containing chimeric hemagglutinin genes derived from genetically divergent influenza A H1N1 subtype viruses. Plos One, 10(6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127649Background and Objectives: Influenza A viruses cause highly contagious diseases in a variety of hosts, including humans and pigs. To develop a vaccine that can be broadly effective against genetically divergent strains of the virus, in this study we employed molecular breeding (DNA shuffling) technology to create a panel of chimeric HA genes. Methods and Results: Each chimeric HA gene contained genetic elements from parental swine influenza A viruses that had a history of zoonotic transmission, and also from a 2009 pandemic virus. Each parental virus represents a major phylogenetic clade of influenza A H1N1 viruses. Nine shuffled HA constructs were initially screened for immunogenicity in mice by DNA immunization, and one chimeric HA (HA-129) was expressed on both a A/Puerto Rico/8/34 backbone with mutations associated with a live, attenuated phenotype (PR8<inf>LAIV-</inf> 129) and a A/swine/Texas/4199-2/98 backbone (TX98-129). When delivered to mice, the PR8<inf>LAIV-</inf> 129 induced antibodies against all four parental viruses, which was similar to the breadth of immunity observed when HA-129 was delivered as a DNA vaccine. This chimeric HA was then tested as a candidate vaccine in a nursery pig model, using inactivated TX98-129 virus as the backbone. The results demonstrate that pigs immunized with HA-129 developed antibodies against all four parental viruses, as well as additional primary swine H1N1 influenza virus field isolates. Conclusion: This study established a platform for creating novel genes of influenza viruses using a molecular breeding approach, which will have important applications toward future development of broadly protective influenza virus vaccines. © 2015 McCormick et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Dna VaccineImmunoglobulin G AntibodyInfluenza VaccineInfluenza Virus HemagglutininPlasmid DnaVirus AntigenArticle