Open AccessIsolation and preliminary characterisation of twenty‐five temperature‐sensitive mutants of mouse cytomegalovirus
Author(s) -
Akel H.M.O.,
Sweet C.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1993.tb06523.x
Subject(s) - virulence , mutant , biology , complementation , replicate , virology , virus , viral replication , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene , statistics , mathematics
Abstract To study the pathogenicity of mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) and to identify virulence determinants, we have isolated and phenotypically characterised 25 temperature‐sensitive ( ts ) mutants. Six of these ( tsm 9, tsm 13, tsm 20, tsm 22, tsm 28 and tsm 30) failed to replicate in mice and were avirulent. Five mutants ( tsm 14, tsm 18, tsm 19, tsm 25 and tsm27 ) were to similar virulence to the parenthal wild‐type ( wt ) virus, five ( tsm 7, tsm 15, tsm 24, tsm31 ) were 12–100 fold less virulent, five ( tsm 8, tsm 12, tsm 16, tsm 23 and tsm 29) were 150–1500 fold less virulent and four ( tsm 10, tsm 11, tsm 17 and tsm 21) were between 2,000 and 85,000 fold less virulent than wt . One mutant ( tsm 28) did not plaque or replicate at 39°C while 5 other mutants ( tsm 7, tsm 9, tsm 23, tsm 24 and tsm 27) also failed to plaque at 39°C but only failed to replicate or replicated poorly at 40°C. A further two mutants ( tsm 10 and tsm 13) were able to plaque and replicate at 39°C but not 40°C. Six other mutants ( tsm 14, tsm 15, tsm 16, tsm21 , tsm 22 and tsm 30) failed to form plaques at 40°C and were severely restricted in their replication at 40°C. The remaining 11 mutants exhibited varying degrees of restriction in ability to plaque and/or replicate at non‐permissive temperatures. These 25 mutants, together with 6 isolated previously, comprise at least 24 complementation groups.