Intracellular events following the infection of different cell types with vesicular stomatitis subviral particles.

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) subviral particles (nucleocapsids and G-depleted particles) were used to infect various cells (chicken embryo, HeLa, and BHK21 cells). These particles bind to and penetrate into host cells; the association of G-depleted particles to cells was even better than that of normal virions. The parental genomes of subviral particles and virions were degraded at the same rate in the infected cells. Nevertheless, these subviral particles had a very low infectivity, synthesized very little viral macromolecules, and had very little, if any, effect on the various host cells used. Furthermore , subviral particles could be rescued in chicken embryo cells by uv-irradiated VSV virions, demonstrating that subviral particles actually penetrated into cells, and that their arrested cycle could be unblocked up to a certain point. On the other hand, subviral particles were not rescued in HeLa cells, suggesting a dependence on the host cell system.