Host-selected amino acid changes at the sialic acid binding pocket of the parvovirus capsid modulate cell binding affinity and determine virulence.

ABSTRACT: The role of receptor recognition in the emergence of virulent viruses was investigated in the infection of severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice by the apathogenic prototype strain of the parvovirus minute virus of mice (MVMp). Genetic analysis of isolated MVMp viral clones (n = 48) emerging in mice, including lethal variants, showed only one of three single changes (V325M, I362S, or K368R) in the common sequence of the two capsid proteins. As was found for the parental isolates, the constructed recombinant viruses harboring the I362S or the K368R single substitutions in the capsid sequence, or mutations at both sites, showed a large-plaque phenotype and lower avidity than the wild type for cells in the cytotoxic interaction with two permissive fibroblast cell lines in vitro and caus

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Bueno A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1346950 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature