Replication of Sindbis virus. III. An electron microscopic study of virus maturation using the surface replica...

We have examined surface replicas of chick embryo cells infected with Sindbis virus. In some cells the virus buds over extensive areas of the cell surface, although there are areas where budding virus is clustered and other regions almost devoid of budding figures. In other cells, virus budding occurs primarily or exclusively at the periphery of the monolayer cells. Budding in these cells often occurs in long processes extending from the cell, which have widths from one to several virion diameters and lengths up to 7 microm. These processes have also been examined by means of thin sections to visualize their internal features, especially the presence of nucleocapsids in the process of budding.