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Journal of Virology, August 2001, p. 7315-7320, Vol. 75, No. 16
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.16.7315-7320.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Contingent Neutrality in Competing Viral Populations

Josep Quer,1,2 Christine L. Hershey,1,dagger Esteban Domingo,2,3 John J. Holland,1 and Isabel S. Novella4,*

Department of Biology and Center for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-01161; Centro de Biologia Molecular "Severo Ochoa" (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid,3 and Recerca Medicina Interna, Area d'Investigació B, Hospital Vall D'Hebron, 119-129 Barcelona,2 Spain; and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio 436144

Received 16 November 2000/Accepted 16 May 2001

The replicative fitness of a genetically marked (MARM-C) population of vesicular stomatitis virus was examined in competition assays in BHK-21 cells. In standard fitness assays involving up to eight competition passages of the mixed populations, MARM-C competes equally with the wild type (wt), but very prolonged competitions always led to the wt gaining dominance over MARM-C in a very slowed, nonlinear manner (J. Quer et al., J. Mol. Biol. 264:465-471, 1996). In the present study we show that a number of quite unrelated environmental perturbations, which decreased virus replication during competitions, all led to an accelerated dominance of the wt over MARM-C. These perturbations were (i) the presence of added (or endogenously generated) defective interfering particles, (ii) the presence of the chemical mutagen 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), or (iii) an increase in temperature to 40.5°C. Thus, the "neutral fitness" of the MARM-C population is contingent. We have determined the entire genomic consensus sequence of MARM-C and have identified only six mutations. Clearly, some or all of these mutations allowed the MARM-C quasispecies population to compete equally with wt in a defined constant host environment, but the period of neutrality was shortened when the environment was perturbed during competitions. Interestingly, when four passages of each population were carried out independently in the presence of 5-FU (but in the absence of competition), no significant differences were detected in the fitness changes of wt and MARM-C, nor was there a difference in their subsequent abilities to compete with each other in a standard fitness assay. We propose a model for this contingent neutrality. The conditions employed to generate the MARM-C quasispecies population selected a small number of mutations in the consensus sequence. It appears that the MARM-C quasispecies population has moved into a segment of sequence space in which the average fitness value is neutral but, under environmental stress, beneficial mutations cannot be generated rapidly enough to compete with those being generated concurrently by competing wt virus quasispecies populations.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College of Ohio, 3055 Arlington Ave., Toledo, OH 43614. Phone: (419) 383-6442. Fax: (419) 383-3002. E-mail: isabel{at}mco.edu.

dagger Present address: Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115.

Journal of Virology, August 2001, p. 7315-7320, Vol. 75, No. 16
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.16.7315-7320.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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