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J Virol. 1968 December; 2(12): 1458-1464
Copyright © 1968 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Labile Coat: Reason for Noninfectious Cell-free Varicella-Zoster Virus in Culture ¹

^a Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90024

ABSTRACT

Experiments designed to determine why cell-free varicella-zoster virus replicated in cell culture is noninfectious were performed. Electron micrographs in which varicella-zoster virus (a herpesvirus) was compared to herpes simplex virus in primary human amnion cell cultures showed that the viruses were morphologically indistinguishable inside the nucleus. However, extranuclear varicella-zoster viruses were distinguished from herpes simplex virus by the presence of pleomorphism, incomplete coats, and a resultant loss of central dense cores. This result indicates that varicella-zoster virus possesses a labile coat which is degraded outside the nucleus. It is suggested that the labile coat is a principal reason for the lack of cell-free infectious virus in this system.

¹ A preliminary report of this investigation was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Detroit, Mich., 1968.

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