Further studies of 31 temperature-sensitive mutants of mouse cytomegalovirus: thermal stability, replication and analysis of temperature-sensitive functions by temperature shift.

A study of 31 temperature-sensitive mutants of mouse cytomegalovirus has indicated that two mutants (tsm1, tsm31) may be defective in immediate-early/early functions, two (tsm2, tsm3) may be defective in early functions and six (tsm9, tsm18, tsm22, tsm23, tsm28, tsm30) may be defective in early/late functions while the remainder are late function-defective mutants as determined by temperature-shift experiments. Three mutants (tsm1, tsm2, tsm3) were more thermostable than wild-type virus while three (tsm16, tsm26, tsm28) were more thermolabile; the remainder were similar in their thermostability to wild-type virus.