Abstract: To screen and identify the proteins that interact with VP6 and VP38 of type III reovirus of grass carp,GCRV104 strain, the complete ORFs encoded by the s8 and s10 genome fragments were amplified by RT-PCR from infected cells and used to generate the bait plasmids for yeast two-hybrid screen, pGBKT7-VP6 and pGBKT7-VP38, respectively. The cDNA library plasmid of Ctenopharyngodon idella kidney cells was screened to reveal potential interaction partners in yeast AH109 transformed with pGBKT7-VP6 or pGBKT7-VP38. The positive clones were analyzed by plasmid sequencing and nucleotide sequence blasting.The results showed that both bait plasmid pGBKT7-VP6 and pGBKT7-VP38 demonstrated no self-activation in yeast; 7 host proteins were suggested to bind VP6 including beta-actin, augmin-like complex subunit 2, zinc finger FYVE domain containing 21, mannosidase alpha class 2B member 1, programmed cell death 6, eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 gamma and an unknown protein; while, 4 host proteins were suggested to bind VP38 that included cleavage and polyadenylation specific factor 5, high mobility group nucleosomal binding domain 2, glucose transporter X (glutX) gene, and proteasome subunit beta7. This study may pave the way for understanding functions of VP6 and VP38 proteins encoded by genotype Ⅲ reovirus of grass carp and present some information for the exploration of GCRV replication mechanism.

Key words: GCRV104, VP6, VP38, yeast two-hybrid system, protein interaction