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J Virol. 1968 April; 2(4): 384-392
Copyright © 1968 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Herpes Simplex Virus Products in Productive and Abortive Infection

II. Electron Microscopic and Immunological Evidence for Failure of Virus Envelopment as a Cause of Abortive Infection

Department of Microbiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

ABSTRACT

Herpes simplex virus strain MPdk^– multiplies in HEp-2 cells, but not in dog kidney (DK) cells. Strain MPdk⁺sp, a multistep mutant of MPdk^–, multiplies in both HEp-2 and DK cells. Stabilized lysates of productively infected cells yield three macromolecular aggregates of viral deoxyribonucleic acid and protein banding in CsCl gradients at densities of 1.285 g/cm³ (), 1.325 g/cm³ (ß), and 1.37 to 1.45 g/cm³ (). Similar lysates from abortively infected cells yield only the ß and bands. Electron microscopic examination revealed that (i) the band contained enveloped nucleocapsids, whereas the ß band contained naked nucleocapsids and particles tentatively identified as internal components of the nucleocapsids, and that (ii) the enveloped virions and reduplication of cellular membranes observed in thin sections of productively infected cells were absent from abortively infected cells. Studies of the surface antigens of infected cells in a cytolytic system described previously revealed that abortively infected cells contained approximately 10-fold less virus-induced surface antigen than did productively infected cells. From these and other data published previously, we concluded that infectious MPdk^– virions are not made in DK cells because (i) functional viral products necessary for the envelopment of the nucleocapsid are not made, and (ii) capsid proteins and some nonstructural products specified by the virus malfunction.