Evolution of a persistent aphthovirus in cytolytic infections: partial reversion of phenotypic traits accompanied by genetic diversification.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) shows a dual potential to be cytolytic or to establish persistent infections in cell culture. FMDV R100, a virus rescued after 100 passages of carrier BHK-21 cells persistently infected with FMDV clone C-S8c1, showed multiple genetic and phenotypic alterations relative to the parental clone C-S8c1. Several FMDV R100 populations have been subjected to 100 serial cytolytic infections in BHK-21 cells, and the reversion of phenotypic and genetic alterations has been analyzed. An extreme temperature sensitivity of R100 reverted totally or partially in some passage series but not in others. The small-plaque morphology reverted to normal size in all cases. The hypervirulence for BHK-21 cells did not revert, and even showed an increase, upon cytolytic passage. Most of the mutations that had been fixed in the R100 genome during persistence did not revert in the course of cytolytic passages, but the extended polyribocytidylate tract of R100 (about 460 residues, versus 290 in C-S8c1) decreased dramatically in length, to the range of 220 to 260 residues in all passage series examined. In passages involving very large viral populations, a variant with two amino acid substitutions (L-144-->V and A-145-->P) next to the highly conserved Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD motif; positions 141 to 143) within the G-H loop of capsid protein VP1 became dominant. A clonal analysis allowed isolation of a mutant with the single replacement A-145-->P. Viral production and growth competition experiments showed the two variants to have a fitness very close to that of the parental virus. The results provide evidence that the repertoire of variants that could potentially become dominant in viral quasispecies may be influenced by the population size of the evolving virus. The net results of a series of persistent-infection passages followed by a series of cytolytic passages was progressive genomic diversification despite reversion or stasis of phenotypic traits. Implications for the evolution of RNA viruses are discussed.     

Lack of evolutionary stasis during alternating replication of an arbovirus in insect and mammalian cells

The evolution of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in a constant environment, consisting of either mammalian or insect cells, has been compared to the evolution of the same viral population in changing environments consisting in alternating passages in mammalian and insect cells. Fitness increases were observed in all cases. An initial fitness loss of VSV passaged in insect cells was noted when fitness was measured in BHK-21 cells, but this effect could be attributed to a difference of temperature during VSV replication at 37 degrees C in BHK-21 cells. Sequencing of nucleotides 1-4717 at the 3' end of the VSV genome (N, P, M and G genes) showed that at passage 80 the number of mutations accumulated during alternated passages (seven mutations) is similar or larger than that observed in populations evolving in a constant environment (two to four mutations). Our results indicate that insect and mammalian cells can constitute similar environments for viral replication. Thus, the slow rates of evolution observed in natural populations of arboviruses are not necessarily due to the need for the virus to compromise between adaptation to both arthropod and vertebrate cell types.     

病毒疫苗制备用不同核型VERO细胞系在裸鼠体内致癌/致瘤性的系统实验研究

生产疫苗用细胞系可能具有致瘤性,一些常用的细胞系需要检查不同代次有无致癌性。在建立传代细胞种子库与工作库基础上,对研制生产病毒活疫苗所用8株VERO细胞系在219只裸鼠进行了致癌(瘤)实验。本研究结果表明,VERO细胞染色体核型可发生变异,亚四倍体JA株与超二倍体KA株具有强的致癌性,不能用于致弱活病毒疫苗制备,但可替代HeLa细胞系用作恶性肿瘤阳性对照细胞。筛出无致瘤性的YB、dC、M和JB株亚二倍体VERO细胞系,可替代BHK-21细胞用于狂犬病减毒活疫苗制备。VERO细胞系染色体遗传相对稳定。不同代次变化不大。研究发现细胞染色体遗传特征决定致瘤性质并具有种属特异性,不同核型细胞致瘤性不同,细胞染色体数目变异大小和致癌性成正相关,通过体内外交替选育可在裸鼠体内快速选育成功高变异率肿瘤细胞系。高变异率HeLa或VERO细胞系移植于裸鼠可能产生恶性横纹肌样瘤。因此,应当强调疫苗生产用细胞系致瘤性评价的重要性。     

An antiviral mechanism investigated with ribavirin as an RNA virus mutagen for foot-and-mouth disease virus

To prove whether error catastrophe/lethal mutagenesis is the primary antiviral mechanism of action of ribavirin against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Ribavirin passage experiments were performed and supernatants of Rp1 to Rp5 were harvested. Morphological alterations as well as the levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected using the supernatants of Rp1 to Rp5 and control were measured by microscope, real-time RT-PCR, western-blotting and plaque assays, respectively. The mutation frequency was measured by sequencing the complete P1- and 3D-encoding region of FMDV after a single round of virus infection from ribavirin-treated or untreated FMDV-infected cells. Ribavirin treatment for FMDV caused dramatically inhibition of multiplication in cell cultures. The levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected were more greatly reduced along with the passage from Rp1 to Rp5, moreover, nucleocapsid protein could not be detected and no recovery of infectious virus in the supernatant or detection of intracellular viral RNA was observed at the Rp5-infected cells. A high mutation rate, giving rise to an 8-and 11-fold increase in mutagenesis and resulting in some amino acid substitutions, was found in viral RNA synthesized at a single round of virus infection in the presence of ribavirin of 1000 microM and caused a 99.7% loss in viral infectivity in contrast with parallel untreated control virus. These results suggest that the antiviral molecular mechanism of ribavirin is based on the lethal mutagenesis/error catastrophe, that is, the ribavirin is not merely an antiviral reagent but also an effective mutagen.     

Antiapoptotic but Not Antiviral Function of Human bcl-2 Assists Establishment of Japanese Encephalitis Virus Persistence in Cultured Cells

Upon infection of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were killed by a mechanism involved in apoptosis. While readily established in a variety of cell lines, JEV persistence has never been successfully instituted in BHK-21 and CHO cells. Since stable expression of human bcl-2 in BHK-21 cells has been shown to delay JEV-induced apoptosis, in this study we investigated whether JEV persistence could be established in such cells. When constitutively expressing bcl-2, but not its closest homolog, bcl-X_L, following a primary lytic infection, approximately 5 to 10% of BHK-21 and CHO cells became persistently JEV infected during a long-term culture. From the persistent bulks, several independent clones were selected and expanded to form stable cell lines that continuously produced infectious virus without marked cytopathic effects (CPE). Among these stable cell lines, the truncated nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) was also detected and was indistinguishable from the NS1 truncations previously observed in JEV-persistent murine neuroblastoma N18 cells. However, the stable expression of NS1 alone, regardless of whether it was truncated or full length, failed to render the engineered cells persistently infected by JEV, implying that aberrant NS1 proteins were likely a consequence of, rather than a cause for, the viral persistence. Enforced bcl-2 expression, which did not affect virus replication and spread during the early phase of cytolytic infection, appeared to attain JEV persistence by restriction of virus-induced CPE. Our results suggest that it is the antiapoptotic, rather than the antiviral, effect of cellular bcl-2 which plays a role in the establishment of JEV persistence.     

Virus attenuation and identification of structural proteins of vaccinia virus that are selectively modified during virus persistence.

To investigate the genetic stability of vaccinia virus DNA, we have tested whether alterations occurred in the polypeptide composition of this complex virus during persistent infections. We found that variants isolated at various passages in Friend erythroleukemia cells persistently infected with vaccinia virus contained, in addition to an 8-megadalton (MDa) deletion on the left terminus of the viral genome, major alterations in the sizes of three structural proteins with molecular masses of about 39, 21, and 14 kDa. Alterations in isoelectric points were also observed in proteins of 48, 27, and 14 kDa. The 14-kDa protein is part of the virus envelope, and the variants increased the size of this protein from 0.5 to 3 kDa with increasing passage number. Alteration in size of the 14-kDa protein is a dominant trait since it appeared in the whole virus population by passage 48. With more passages, some variants were found to increase or decrease the size of a 39-kDa core protein by about 2 kDa and to decrease the size of an envelope protein of 21 kDa by about 2 kDa. These three proteins were immunogenic in mice and elicited a strong host immune response. Major alterations in the sizes of these proteins were prevented by continuous treatment of the persistently infected cultures with interferon. However, after interferon was removed, protein modifications appeared with increasing passage number. Generation of the 8-MDa deletion and alterations in the size of the 14-kDa protein correlated with a marked decrease in virulence of these variants. Our findings suggest that during virus persistence, specific mutations are introduced in the vaccinia virus genome that lead to protein alterations and to highly attenuated viruses.     

不同动物源性细胞系对猪丁型冠状病毒的易感性

[目的]探究猪丁型冠状病毒(porcine deltacoronavirus,PDCoV)能否在不同动物源性细胞系中感染和增殖.[方法]本研究将PDCoV四川分离株CHN-SC2015接种来自仓鼠、家禽、猴、人和猪的12种细胞系,将病毒在每种细胞系中盲传至少5代并通过逆转录-聚合酶链式反应(RT-PCR)、实时荧光定量...     

Adaptation of Puumala hantavirus to cell culture is associated with point mutations in the coding region of the L segment and in the noncoding regions of the S segment

We previously developed a model for studies on hantavirus host adaptation and initiated genetic analysis of Puumala virus variants passaged in colonized bank voles and in cultured Vero E6 cells. With the data presented in this paper, the sequence comparison of the wild-type and Vero E6-adapted variants of Puumala virus, strain Kazan, has been completed. The only amino acid substitution that distinguished the two virus variants was found in the L protein, Ser versus Phe at position 2053. Another mutation found in the L segment, the silent transition C1053U, could result from the selection of a variant with altered L RNA folding. Nucleotide substitutions observed in individual L cDNA clones, most of them A-->G and U-->C transitions, suggested that the population of L RNA molecules is represented by quasispecies. The mutation frequency in the L segment quasispecies appeared to be similar to the corresponding values for the S and M quasispecies. Analysis of the cDNA clones with the complete S segment sequences from passage 20 confirmed our earlier conclusion that the cell-adapted genotype of the virus is represented mostly by variants with mutated S segment noncoding regions. However, the spectrum of the S segment quasispecies appeared to be changing, suggesting that, after the initial adaptation (passages 1 to 11), the viral population is still being driven by selection for variants with higher fitness.     

Cell recognition by foot-and-mouth disease virus that lacks the RGD integrin-binding motif: flexibility in aphthovirus receptor usage

Cell surface molecules that can act as virus receptors may exert an important selective pressure on RNA viral quasispecies. Large population passages of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in cell culture select for mutant viruses that render dispensable a highly conserved Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif responsible for integrin receptor recognition. Here, we provide evidence that viability of recombinant FMDVs including a Asp-143-->Gly change at the RGD motif was conditioned by a number of capsid substitutions selected upon FMDV evolution in cell culture. Multiply passaged FMDVs acquired the ability to infect human K-562 cells, which do not express integrin alpha(v)beta(3). In contrast to previously described cell culture-adapted FMDVs, the RGD-independent infection did not require binding to the surface glycosaminoglycan heparan sulfate (HS). Viruses which do not bind HS and lack the RGD integrin-binding motif replicate efficiently in BHK-21 cells. Interestingly, FMDV mutants selected from the quasispecies for the inability to bind heparin regained sensitivity to inhibition by a synthetic peptide that represents the G-H loop of VP1. Thus, a single amino acid replacement leading to loss of HS recognition can shift preferential receptor usage of FMDV from HS to integrin. These results indicate at least three different mechanisms for cell recognition by FMDV and suggest a potential for this virus to use multiple, alternative receptors for entry even into the same cell type.     

Fitness alteration of foot-and-mouth disease virus mutants: measurement of adaptability of viral quasispecies.

We document the rapid alteration of fitness of two foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) mutants resistant to a neutralizing monoclonal antibody. Both mutants showed a selective disadvantage in BHK-21 cells when passaged in competition with their parental FMDV. Upon repeated replication of the mutants alone, they acquired a selective advantage over the parental FMDV and fixed additional genomic substitutions without reversion of the monoclonal antibody-resistant phenotype. Thus, variants that were previously kept at low frequency in the mutant spectrum of a viral quasispecies rapidly became the master sequence of a new genomic distribution and dominated the viral population.     

Rapid Selection in Modified BHK-21 Cells of a Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Variant Showing Alterations in Cell Tropism

With persistent foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in BHK-21 cells, there is coevolution of the cells and the resident virus; the virulence of the virus for the parental BHK-21 cells is gradually increased, and the cells become partially resistant to FMDV. Here we report that variants of FMDV C₃Arg/85 were selected in a single infection of partially resistant BHK-21 cells (termed BHK-Rb cells). Indirect immunofluorescence showed that the BHK-Rb cell population was heterogeneous with regard to susceptibility to C₃Arg/85 infection. Infection of BHK-Rb cells with C₃Arg/85 resulted in an early phase of partial cytopathology which was followed at 6 to 10 days postinfection by the shedding of mutant FMDVs, termed C₃-Rb. The selected C₃-Rb variants showed increased virulence for BHK-21 cells, were able to overcome the resistance of modified BHK-21 cells to infection, and had acquired the ability to bind heparin and to infect wild-type Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. A comparison of the genomic sequences of the parental and modified viruses revealed only two amino acid differences, located at the surface of the particle, at the fivefold axis of the viral capsid (Asp-9→Ala in VP3 and either Gly-110→Arg or His-108→Arg in VP1). The same phenotypic and genotypic modifications occurred in a highly reproducible manner; they were seen in a number of independent infections of BHK-Rb cells with viral preparation C₃Arg/85 or with clones derived from it. Neither amino acid substitutions in other structural or nonstructural proteins nor nucleotide substitutions in regulatory regions were found. These results prove that infection of partially permissive cells can promote the rapid selection of virus variants that show alterations in cell tropism and are highly virulent for the same cells.     

Evolution of quasispecies diversity for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus under antibody selective pressure

To study the quasispecies diversity of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), open reading frame 5 (ORF5) of strain SD0612 was amplified and cloned. Sixty clones of ORF5 were sequenced and analyzed with DNAStar software. Nucleic acid sequence homology was 97.7%?C100%, with 78 mutations observed. Among these 60 clones, the sequences of 17 clones were identical and recognized as the dominant quasispecies of strain SD0612. Evolution of SD0612 quasispecies diversity under antibody selective pressure was also studied. SD0612 was passed continuously in the Marc-145 cell line over 40 passages in 6 independent lineages. SD0612 antiserum was not added to lineage A, B, and C cultures; however, antiserum was added to culture medium for lineages D, E, and F. PRRSV ORF5 was then amplified, cloned, and sequenced from each of the 6 lineages, designated as A40-F40. F40 was further passed in Marc-145 cells using 6 independent lineages with or without F40 antiserum for another 40 passages. ORF5 from the 6 newly-derived virus lineages, which we designated as a40-f40, were amplified, cloned and sequenced. The proportion of dominant quasispecies increased with passage number in cell cultures supplemented with antibodies, but decreased when antibodies were lacking. Our work has demonstrated a diversity of quasispecies for ORF5 in PRRSV SD0612. Antibody selective pressure was able to significantly influence quasispecies diversity and promote a dominant quasispecies that was able to evade immune reactions.     

Theiler's virus as a vector for foreign gene delivery.

DA strain and other strains of the TO subgroup of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis viruses are members of the Cardiovirus genus of picornaviruses and produce a persistent demyelinating disease in mice. A recent study from our laboratory (W.-P. Kong, G. D. Ghadge, and R. P. Roos, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:1796-1800, 1994) demonstrated that the leader, which is encoded at the N terminus of the Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus polyprotein, can be partially replaced by foreign sequences as well as completely deleted, with no loss of infectivity in BHK-21 cells. In this study, we have inserted up to 724 nucleotides into the leader coding region of an infectious DA clone. Recombinant viruses were produced, and the inserts were shown to be stable for at least three passages in BHK-21 cells.     

Hypervariable Domain of Nonstructural Protein nsP3 of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Determines Cell-Specific Mode of Virus Replication

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is one of the most pathogenic members of the Alphavirus genus in the Togaviridae family. This genus is divided into the Old World and New World alphaviruses, which demonstrate profound differences in pathogenesis, replication, and virus-host interactions. VEEV is a representative member of the New World alphaviruses. The biology of this virus is still insufficiently understood, particularly the function of its nonstructural proteins in RNA replication and modification of the intracellular environment. One of these nonstructural proteins, nsP3, contains a hypervariable domain (HVD), which demonstrates very low overall similarity between different alphaviruses, suggesting the possibility of its function in virus adaptation to different hosts and vectors. The results of our study demonstrate the following. (i) Phosphorylation of the VEEV nsP3-specific HVD does not play a critical role in virus replication in cells of vertebrate origin but is important for virus replication in mosquito cells. (ii) The VEEV HVD is not required for viral RNA replication in the highly permissive BHK-21 cell line. In fact, it can be either completely deleted or replaced by a heterologous protein sequence. These variants require only one or two additional adaptive mutations in nsP3 and/or nsP2 proteins to achieve an efficiently replicating phenotype. (iii) However, the carboxy-terminal repeat in the VEEV HVD is indispensable for VEEV replication in the cell lines other than BHK-21 and plays a critical role in formation of VEEV-specific cytoplasmic protein complexes. Natural VEEV variants retain at least one of the repeated elements in their nsP3 HVDs.     

Extensive cell heterogeneity during persistent infection with foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Coevolution of viruses and the host cells occurred in BHK-21 cell cultures persistently infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) (J. C. de la Torre, E. Martínez-Salas, J. Diez, A. Villaverde, F. Gebauer, E. Rocha, M. Dávila, and E. Domingo, J. Virol. 62:2050-2058, 1988). In the present report we provide evidence of an extreme phenotypic heterogeneity of the cells, which was generated in the course of persistence. A total of 248 stable cell clones isolated from FMDV carrier cultures at early or late passages were analyzed. At least six distinct cell phenotypes were distinguished with regard to cell morphology, resistance to FMDV strain C-S8c1, and cell growth characteristics. No infectious FMDV or viral RNA was detected in variant cell clones, suggesting that the altered phenotypes were caused by inheritable cell modifications, selected in the course of persistence. Thus, the FMDV-BHK-21 carrier cell system must be described as a dynamic interaction between an evolving heterogeneous population of virus and multiple cell variants. We suggest that cell heterogeneity confers a selective advantage for long-term virus and cell survival by providing the cell population with a range of responses toward FMDV.     

Continuing coevolution of virus and defective interfering particles and of viral genome sequences during undiluted passages: virus mutants exhibiting nearly complete resistance to formerly dominant defective interfering particles

We quantitatively analyzed the interference interactions between defective interfering (DI) particles and mutants of cloned vesicular stomatitis virus passaged undiluted hundreds of times in BHK-21 cells. DI particles which predominated at different times in these serial passages always interfered most strongly (and very efficiently) with virus isolated a number of passages before the isolation of the DI particles. Virus isolated at the same passage level as the predominant DI particles usually exhibited severalfold resistance to these DI particles. Virus mutants (Sdi- mutants) isolated during subsequent passages always showed increasing resistance to these DI particles, followed by decreasing resistance as new DI particles arose to predominate and exert their own selective pressures on the virus mutant population. It appears that such coevolution of virus and DI particle populations proceeds indefinitely through multiple cycles of selection of virus mutants resistant to a certain DI particle (or DI particle class), followed by mutants resistant to a newly predominant DI particle, etc. At the peak of resistance, virus mutants were isolated which were essentially completely resistant to a particular DI particle; i.e., they were several hundred thousand-fold resistant, and they formed plaques of normal size and numbers in the presence of extremely high multiplicities of the DI particle. However, they were sensitive to interference by other DI particles. Recurring population interactions of this kind can promote rapid virus evolution. Complete sequencing of the N (nucleocapsid) and NS (polymerase associated) genes of numerous Sdi- mutants collected at passage intervals showed very few changes in the NS protein, but the N gene gradually accumulated a series of stable nucleotide and amino acid substitutions, some of which correlated with extensive changes in the Sdi- phenotype. Likewise, the 5' termini (and their complementary plus-strand 3' termini) continued to accumulate extensive base substitutions which were strikingly confined to the first 47 nucleotides. We also observed addition and deletion mutations in noncoding regions of the viral genome at a level suggesting that they probably occur at a high frequency throughout the genome, but usually with lethal or debilitating consequences when they occur in coding regions.     

Sequence analysis of capsid coding region of foot-and-mouth disease virus type A vaccine strain during serial passages in BHK-21 adherent and suspension cells

Sequence variability within the capsid coding region of the foot-and-mouth disease virus type A vaccine strain during serial in vitro passage was investigated. Specifically, two methods of virus propagation were utilized, a monolayer and suspension culture of BHK-21 cells. At three positions (VP2₁₃₁ E-K in both monolayer and suspension passages, VP3₈₅ H-R in late monolayer passages and VP3₁₃₉ K-E in only suspension passages), all mapped to surface exposed loops, amino acid substitutions were apparently fixed without reversion till the end of the passage regime. Interestingly, VP2_{131, 121} and VP3₈₅ which form part of the heparan sulphate binding pocket, showed a tendency to acquire positively charged amino acids in either monolayer or suspension environment probably to better interact with the negatively charged cell surface glycosaminoglycans. At three identified antigenically critical positions (VP2₇₉, VP3₁₃₉ and VP1₁₅₄), amino acids substitutions even in the absence of immune pressure were noticed. Hence both random drift and adaptive mutations attributable to the strong selective pressure exerted by the proposed cell surface alternate receptors could play a role in modifying the capsid sequence of cell culture propagated FMDV vaccine virus, which in turn may alter the desired potency of the vaccine formulations.     

CD163 expression confers susceptibility to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome viruses

Direct functional screening of a cDNA expression library derived from primary porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM) revealed that CD163 is capable of conferring a porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)-permissive phenotype when introduced into nonpermissive cells. Transient-transfection experiments showed that full-length CD163 cDNAs from PAM, human U937 cells (histiocytic lymphoma), African green monkey kidney cells (MARC-145 and Vero), primary mouse peritoneal macrophages, and canine DH82 (histocytosis) cells encode functional virus receptors. In contrast, CD163 splice variants without the C-terminal transmembrane anchor domain do not provide PRRSV receptor function. We established several stable cell lines expressing CD163 cDNAs from pig, human, and monkey, using porcine kidney (PK 032495), feline kidney (NLFK), or baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) as the parental cell lines. These stable cell lines were susceptible to PRRSV infection and yielded high titers of progeny virus. Cell lines were phenotypically stable over 80 cell passages, and PRRSV could be serially passed at least 60 times, yielding in excess of 10(5) 50% tissue culture infective doses/ml.