Calomys musculinus, the natural reservoir of Argentine haemorrhagic fever, is a semipermissive host for a mouse-attenuated mutant of Junin virus.
C167, a mouse-attenuated strain of Junin virus derived from the XJC13 strain, also displayed reduced virulence for the South American cricetid Calomys musculinus, a natural reservoir of this virus in nature. Intracerebral inoculation of C. musculinus with 500 PFU of C167 produced only 25% mortality, whereas the parental XJC13 killed 85% of the animals. The attenuation of C167 for this cricetid was lower than for albino mice. The multiplication of C167 in C. musculinus-derived embryo or kidney fibroblasts was diminished with respect to XJC13, allowing us to define C. musculinus cells as a semipermissive system for C167, whereas murine and Vero cells were restrictive and permissive cultures, respectively. As a consequence, C167 as well as XJC13 were able to establish a persistent infection in C. musculinus embryo fibroblasts and Vero cells, but the mutant could not induce a carrier state in murine cells. Thus, the degree of susceptibility of C. musculinus to C167 was linked to the semipermissiveness of cricetid cells to virus multiplication.
Depto. Quimica Biologica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria.
L A
LA
Scolaro
E B
EB
Damonte
D000818:Animals; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D006478:Hemorrhagic Fever, American / Q000401:mortality / Q000821:virology*; D018051:Junin virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D009115:Muridae / Q000821:virology*; D009154:Mutation; D015163:Superinfection; D014709:Vero Cells; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics; D014779:Virus Replication