Targeted editing of avian herpesvirus vaccine vector using CRISPR/Cas9 nuclease

Herpesvirus of turkey (HVT) is an avian alphaherpesvirus used as live vaccine against Marek's disease for more than 40 years. Here, we describe the application of CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing as a rapid and efficient method of introducing targeted mutations to the genome of a live herpesvirus vaccine vector using a transfection-infection system.