Characteristics of Sindbis virus temperature-sensitive mutants in cultured BHK-21 and Aedes albopictus (Mosquito) cells

Abstract

A number of the temperature-sensitive mutants of Sindbis virus were reexamined for their abilities to grow and complement one another in cultured BHK-21 [baby hamster kidney] and A. albopictus (mosquito) cells. The response of the mutants to conditions of high and low temperature was similar in the vertebrate and invertebrate cells. Complementation experiments in BHK-21 cells produced growth patterns similar to those for chicken embryo fibroblast cells and placed the mutants into 6 nonoverlapping complementation groups. When examined in the culture mosquito cells, only 3 of the 9 mutants used in this study demonstrated complementation under a variety of experimental conditions. Homologous interference experiments demonstrated that the unusual patterns of complementation obtained in the A. albopictus cells did not result from an inefficient infection of the invertebrate cells by the mutants.