Proteolytic processing of the Sindbis virus membrane protein precursor PE2 is nonessential for growth in vertebrate cells but is required for efficient growth in invertebrate cells.

We have shown previously that processing of the Sindbis virus envelope protein precursor PE2 to envelope protein E2 is not required for virus maturation in cultured vertebrate fibroblast cells and that unprocessed PE2 can be incorporated into infectious virus in place of E2 (J. F. Presley and D. T. Brown, J. Virol. 63:1975-1980, 1989; D. L. Russell, J. M. Dalrymple, and R. E. Johnston, J. Virol. 63:1619-1629, 1989). To better understand the role of this processing event in the invertebrate vector portion of the alphavirus life cycle, we have examined the maturation of Sindbis virus mutants defective in PE2 processing in cultured mosquito cells. We found that although substantial amounts of structural proteins PE2, E1, and C were produced in infected mosquito (aedine) cell lines, very little infectious virus was released. When the period of infection was extended, plaque size variants appeared, some of which exhibited a restored ability to grow in mosquito cells. The nucleotide sequences of two such variants were determined. These variants contained point mutations that restored PE2 cleavage, indicating a genetic linkage between failure to cleave PE2 and failure to grow in mosquito cells.