Host Restriction Property of a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Mutant Isolated from Carrier Cultures

Abstract

Carrier cultures of [mouse] L cells infected with wild-type vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVo) were initiated without the use of defective-interfering particles or homologous interferon. The cloned viruses recovered from such carrier cultures after passage 21 were characterized as temperature-sensitive. These clones of the mutant showed restricted replication at permissive temperature in HEp-2 [human laryngeal carcinoma] cell cultures as compared to the wild-type VSVo. This restrictive replication of the mutant in HEp-2 cells was not due to a defect in the expression of virion-associated primary transcriptase activity in vivo but to the marked reduction in virus-specific amplified RNA synthesis. Host function(s) yet to be characterized may govern the synthesis of mutant virus-specific amplified RNA in HEp-2 cells.