Non-infectious morphologically altered nucleocapsids of measles virus from persistently infected cells.
Persistent measles virus infection of human HEp-2 or L-41 cells was accompanied by pronounced structural and functional changes of isolated intracellular viral nucleocapsids (NCs). The bulk of persistent NCs possessed altered conformation and a "string-of-beads" appearance, contained substantial amounts of subgenomic size RNAs, exhibited reduced transcriptase activity in vitro and lacked infectivity on transfection of susceptible cells. Immunogold staining revealed negligible binding of anti-P protein monoclonal antibodies to the "string-of-beads" type NCs, thus suggesting their non-functional state.
D002213:Capsid / Q000032:analysis*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008459:Measles virus / Q000032:analysis*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D012260:Ribonucleases / Q000494:pharmacology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014758:Viral Core Proteins / Q000032:analysis*
D012367:RNA, Viral; D014758:Viral Core Proteins; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases; D012260:Ribonucleases