EFFICIENCY OF TRANSDUCTION BY RECOMBINANT SINDBIS REPLICON VIRUS VARIES AMONG CELL-LINES, INCLUDING MOSQUITO CELLS AND RAT SENSORY NEURONS

Recombinant alphaviruses have been used as vehicles for delivery and e xpression of heterologous genes in mammalian, avian and insect cell li nes. We have used a Sindbis replicon virus (Sinreplac) able to express the E. coli lacZ gene to compare the efficiency of transduction in on e insect, six mammalian cell lines and cultured rat dorsal neurons whi ch apparently express beta-galactosidase over a 30-day time period. Re sults show that different cell lines were transduced with varying degr ees of efficiency and that this efficiency could be improved in some c ell lines by packaging the replicon with a helper derived from a more neurovirulent strain of Sindbis.