Structural gene (prME) chimeras of St Louis encephalitis virus and West Nile virus exhibit altered in vitro cytopathic and growth phenotypes.

ABSTRACT: Despite utilizing the same avian hosts and mosquito vectors, St Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) and West Nile virus (WNV) display dissimilar vector-infectivity and vertebrate-pathogenic phenotypes. SLEV exhibits a low oral infection threshold for Culex mosquito vectors and is avirulent in avian hosts, producing low-magnitude viraemias. In contrast, WNV is less orally infective to mosquitoes and elicits high-magnitude viraemias in a wide range of avian species. In order to identify the genetic determinants of these different phenotypes and to assess the utility of mosquito and vertebrate cell lines for recapitulating in vivo differences observed between these viruses, reciprocal WNV and SLEV pre-membrane and envelope protein (prME) chimeric viruses were generated and growth of these mutant

SUBMITTER: Maharaj PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3352334 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature