Release of low infectivity vesicular stomatitis virus particles from tunicamycin-treated cells

The effect of tunicamycin (TM) treatment on the production, glycosylation, morphology and infectivity of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) released from mouse (LB), monkey (Cos-1 and VERO), bovine (MDBK), hamster (BHK) and human (HeLa, U and GM2504) cells was investigated. The yield of VSV particles released from TM treated cells, as measured by total viral proteins, was inhibited only 2-10 fold while the infectivity of these particles was greatly reduced (10-1000 fold). The morphology of VSV particles formed in the presence of TM appeared similar to that of VSV particles released from untreated cells as demonstrated by electronmicroscopy. Analysis of intracellular and extracellular virus specific proteins by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that TM blocks the glycosylation of VSV glycoprotein G in all cells tested. These results suggest that inhibition of glycosylation of VSV G protein could affect the biological infectivity of the VSV particle released from the treated cells.