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.
Scolaro
L A
LA
Depto. Quimica Biologica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria.
Damonte
E B
EB
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