Enhanced Replication of Temperature-Sensitive Mutants of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) at the Nonpermissive Temperature in Cells Transformed by HSV-2

Abstract

In order to determine whether herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) genetic information present within HSV-2-transformed cells could assist the replication of temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of HSV-2 at the nonpermissive temperature (38°), the replication of 8 ts mutants of HSV-2 was examined in normal, SV40-transformed, and HSV-2-transformed hamster cells at 38°. The growth of two DNA-positive ts mutants was significantly enhanced in two HSV-2-transformed cell lines at 38° as compared with their growth in normal cells. No enhancement of growth of any of the eight ts mutants occurred in SV40-induced tumor cells. These results suggest that resident, functional HSV genetic information in HSV-2-transformed cells assisted the replication of the mutants by complementation mechanisms.