The regulation of translation in reovirus-infected cells

The regulation of translation in reovirus-infected cells has been investigated by double-infection experiments. Different cell lines were able to translate uncapped encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus mRNA and capped vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) mRNAs both early and late during reovirus infection. These results are not fully in agreement with a previously suggested model in which, in the early phase of reovirus infection, only capped mRNAs are translated, whereas in the late phase the cells are modified to translate exclusively uncapped mRNAs. The observations that EMC virus and VSV shut down host protein synthesis more efficiently than reovirus translation in the late phase in double-infections indicate that competition for a message-discriminatory factor may not be involved in the shut-off of host protein synthesis in these animal virus-infected cells.