title: Reassortants of influenza B viruses for use in vaccines: an evaluation.
abstract: Three slightly different procedures for the preparation of influenza B virus reassortants from B/Lee/40 and B/Lyon/79, and B/Johannesburg/58 and B/Hong Kong/82 parental viruses are described. Following cloning procedures in eggs or allantois-on-shell cultures in the presence of antisera to B/Lee or B/Johannesburg, twenty-eight putative reassortants were obtained. Using SDS-PAGE to determine the migration rates of virion polypeptides, eighteen isolates from mixed infections of B/Lee with B/Lyon, and three isolates from mixed infections of B/Johannesburg with B/Hong Kong, were found to be reassortants. All reassortants possessed surface proteins derived from either B/Lyon or B/Hong Kong and one to three internal polypeptides from either B/Lee or B/Johannesburg. None of the reassortants showed a growth capacity in embryonated eggs as high as that of their B/Lee or B/Johannesburg parent viruses. The procedures used, and the influenza B reassortants thus generated, would appear to offer no major advantages over the existing methods and influenza B strains at present employed for the preparation of inactivated influenza virus vaccines.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Goodeve
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Potter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002213:Capsid / Q000032:analysis*; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D009981:Influenza B virus / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000276:immunology*; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins