A novel cell line established from skin tissue of gibel carp (Carassius gibelio) is susceptible to Carassius auratus herpesvirus infection

Frequent outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases in fish, such as Carassius auratus herpesvirus (CaHV) infection has caused great economic losses in China. However, the lack of a sensitive cell culture system has limited studies of CaHV. In the present study, a new cell line (gibel carp skin cell, GiCS) derived from gibel carp (Carassius gibelio) skin tissue was established to create a valuable tool for research of the virus. The GiCS cells consisted mainly of epithelial-like cells, which grew well at 25 °C in L-15 medium supplemented with 10–20% fetal bovine serum. Chromosomal analysis revealed that the skin cell line remained amphitriploid, with most chromosome counts being 156 (54%). The GiCS cells can be efficiently transfected and expressed exogenous genes. In particular, the GiCS cells showed high susceptibility to CaHV infection, which was confirmed by virus infection tests, detection of viral gene expression, and ultrastructural observation. To our knowledge, it is the first cell line that is highly permissive to CaHV infection. In addition, the cells also showed susceptibility to several aquatic animal viruses from different families including Iridoviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Reoviridae. In conclusion, these results indicated that the establishment of the GiCS cell line is a significant advance that will be beneficial to future studies of CaHV and other aquatic animal viruses.