EVIDENCE FOR PHENOTYPIC MIXING WITH REOVIRUS IN CELL-CULTURE

From pairwise mixed infections of different reovirus wild-type isolate s (T3 Dearing plus T1 Lang or plus T2 Jones) the progeny virus is phen otypically mixed, i.e., progeny viral particles contain proteins deriv ed from both parents but the corresponding genes derived from only one parent Experiments with differential inactivation of virus progeny of mixed infections by monoclonal antibodies or by 33% ethanol reveal ph enotypic mixing of two outer shell proteins, al and probably mu 1. Phe notypic mixing of the mu 1 protein, the product of the M2 gene, is a p ossible explanation for the recent observation of M2 gene-linked domin ant interference between reovirus isolates (M. N. Rozinov and B. N. Fi elds. 1994. J. Virol. 68, 6667-6671). (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.