JVI Accepts, published online ahead of print on 18 March 2009

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wang, F. Articles by McFadden, G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wang, F. Articles by McFadden, G.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.02587-08
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Interferon-/ induction by myxoma virus is selectively abrogated when primary mouse embryo fibroblasts become immortalized

Fuan Wang, John W. Barrett, Yiyue Ma, Gregory A. Dekaban, and Grant McFadden^*

Biotherapeutics Research Group, Robarts Research Institute, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: grantmcf{at}ufl.edu.

Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) are a widely used cell culture system in life sciences including virology. Here we show that although primary MEFs are nonpermissive to myxoma virus replication, the corresponding immortalized MEFs support a highly productive myxoma virus infection. We further demonstrate that this permissive phenotype for myxoma virus in immortalized MEFs is due to the immortalization-associated selective block to the cellular interferon-/ induction machinery involved in responding to myxoma virus challenge. Thus, our report presents a clear example illustrating that a drastic phenotypic alteration can occur with respect to virus infection between primary cells and their immortalized counterparts.