Collective Infection of Cells by Viral Aggregates Promotes Early Viral Proliferation and Reveals a Cellular-Level Allee Effect.

ABSTRACT: In addition to the conventional release of free, individual virions, virus dispersal can involve multi-virion assemblies that collectively infect cells. However, the implications of collective infection for viral fitness remain largely unexplored. Using vesicular stomatitis virus, here, we compare the fitness of free versus saliva-aggregated viral particles. We find that aggregation has a positive effect on early progeny production, conferring a fitness advantage relative to equal numbers of free particles in most cell types. The advantage of aggregation resides, at least partially, in increasing the cellular multiplicity of infection. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts, the per capita, short-term viral progeny production peaked for a dose of ca. three infectious particles per cell. This revea

SUBMITTER: Andreu-Moreno I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6783297 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature