Permissive infection of murine osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells by goatpox virus: establishing a novel cell model for mechanistic studies of host-pathogen interactions.

Goatpox is a highly contagious viral disease that poses a significant threat to the health of goats and other small ruminants. Here, we report for the first time that the murine osteoblastic cell line MC3T3-E1 supports productive GTPV infection, as demonstrated by Western blotting, indirect immunofluorescence assay, and flow cytometry. RNA sequencing revealed thousands of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Signaling pathways and functions of the DEGs were analyzed using Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Real-time quantitative PCR further confirmed the expression of several DEGs. The present study extends the host range for GTPV replication and mechanistic investigations.