Reassortment of human rotavirus possessing genome rearrangements with bovine rotavirus: evidence for host cell selection.

Mixed infections of secondary rhesus monkey kidney cells with human rotaviruses carrying rearranged genomes and with bovine rotavirus yielded a high percentage of reassortants. The genotypes of 511 plaque-purified clones raised in either MA104 or BSC-1 cells have been determined and the frequencies of different genotypes have been calculated. It was found that reassortants did not emerge at random; there was non-random association of certain genes; the cell line used to isolate reassortants influenced the result, i.e. host cell factors had a selective effect on a recombinational mixture.