Morphogenesis of Yellow Fever Virus in Aedes aegypti Cultured Cells

Abstract

We report the isolation of 19 cellular clones of Aedes aegypti and analyze their susceptibility to infection with yellow fever virus, in comparison with the uncloned cells. Four types of clones were found, different in their morphology, their metabolism and their virus production. The C 17 clone produces the most virus, not only with respect to the other Aedes aegypti clones, but also to other uncloned arthropod cells published in the literature. A cytopathic effect exists in the virus infected cells. Cloned and uncloned cells do not seem to produce any antiviral substance which transfers to other cells an immunity against the virus. An immunological study with immunoperoxidase enabled us to follow the appearance of viral antigens and to locate them in the cell. At the beginning we observed a perinuclear coloration diffusing further into the whole cytoplasm. The present report represents an introduction to a structural study on the morphogenesis of yellow fever virus within the cells of Aedes aegypti.