Influence of genetic and physiological properties of the host cell on the cytopathic expression of herpes simplex virus.

Two plaque morphology variants, a cell aggregating variant and a syncytial variant, were isolated from MDBK cells infected with the MP mutant of herpes simplex virus, type 1. The variants differed in the polypeptides produced in infected MDBK cells. The properties of the variants were stable on passage in cells and both variants produced only syncytia in KB and Hep-2 cells. The physiological state of MDBK cells influenced the cytopathological expression of the infecting virus, so that, under certain conditions, each variant could shift from one type of plaque morphology to the other. However, attempts to correlate this plaque morphology shift with a difference in the glycopolypeptides synthesized in the infected cells were unsuccessful.