Isolation and characterization of temperature-sensitive mutants of fowl plague virus

Abstract

Twenty-five temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of fowl plague virus have been isolated and tentatively characterized. Twenty-three of them can be arranged into six recombination groups. The classification of the two other ts mutants is still uncertain. RNA-negative mutants have been found in four recombination groups. One group harbors ts mutants with a lesion in the hemagglutinin gene, another group consists of mutants with a lesion in the neuraminidase gene. One group seems to have a maturation defect. Cells infected with still another group retain the RNA polymerase-template complex within the nucleus. The biological properties of the ts mutants of the various recombination groups suggest that at least some of the gene products might have more than one function.