Construction of multiple shRNA vectors targeting PEDV and TGEV and production of transgenic SCNT porcine embryos in vitro

Porcine viral diarrhea is an acute and highly contagious enteric disease of pigs that causes huge economic losses worldwide. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) are the main pathogens responsible for piglet viral diarrhea. However, currently there is no specific drug available for the effective treatment of viral diarrhea. Therefore, it is necessary to seek an effective method to diminish PEDV and TGEV infection rates. RNA interference has been applied successfully to inhibit the virus replication. It provides a potential strategy for breeding resistant pigs. In this study, four promoters and four short hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors with LoxP sites at each end of the selectable marker genes were constructed to target PEDV and TGEV. These vectors were then transfected into porcine fetal fibroblasts, G418 resistant transfectants were confirmed by PCR and transgenic SCNT porcine blastocysts were obtained. These results have paved the way for future production of marker-free transgenic resistant to PEDV and TEGV pigs by SCNT.