Recombination and rescue between temperature-sensitive mutants of poliovirus type 1

Four different temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants derived from the Mahoney strain of poliovirus type 1, were crossed in an infectious center recombination test. Evidence for recombination was obtained in three crosses, with a different segregation of an unselected marker, resistance to guanidine, in each case. Evidence for genetic complementation between ts mutants was not found, except with one set of RNA- mutants, ts 221 and ts 035. The marked virus yield enhancement which was observed in cells mixedly infected by these two mutants resulted from a nonreciprocal rescue of ts 035 by ts 221. The effects of ts 221 input multiplicity and of guanidine inhibition of viral RNA replication on the rescue were analyzed. The results showed that yield enhancement of ts 035 in mixed infection could be correlated to the low level RNA replication of ts 221 at the nonpermissive temperature.