Generation of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus by in vitro assembly of viral genomic cDNA fragments.

•Infectious PRRSV was successfully generated using Gibson assembly.•Gibson assembly technique was applied to PRRSV for the first time.•The characteristics of Gibson assembly derived virus resembled the parental virus.•The Gibson assembly protocol was used to create a chimeric virus.•The Gibson assembly derived chimeric virus was used to study PRRSV biology.