COMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS OF PSEUDORABIES VIRUS GE AND GI MUTANTS IN RETINAL GANGLION-CELL NEUROTROPISM

Pseudorabies virus glycoproteins gE and gI are required to infect some , but not all, regions of the rodent central nervous system after peri pheral injection. After infection of the retina, pseudorabies virus mu tants lacking either gE or gI can subsequently infect neural centers i nvolved in the control of circadian function but cannot infect visual circuits mediating visual perception or the reflex movement of the eye s. In this study, we used genetic complementation to test the hypothes is that gE and gI are required for entry into the specific retinal gan glion cells that project to visual centers. These data strongly sugges t that gE and gI must function after the viruses enter primary neurons in the retina.