Preferential replication of a class of host-substituted defective simian virus 40 variants at low temperature

The host-substituted variant termed CVP8/1/P2 (EcoRI res) was first isolated several years ago after serial passage of simian virus 40 strain 777 on BSC-1 cells at 37 degrees C. When BSC-1 are coinfected with wild-type simian virus 40 strain 777 and variant CVP8/1/P2 (EcoRI res), the variant rapidly becomes the dominant species produced, often representing as much as 80% of the total DNA I synthesized after infection. We present evidence that the replicative advantage of the variant was increased when the infection was carried out at 33 rather than 37 degrees C. Also described are nine new and independent serial passage experiments carried out at 33 degrees C with several purified wild-type virus stocks, including strain 776, and both BSC-1 and primary African green monkey kidney cells. In each series variants related to CVPs/1/P2 (EcoRI res) were detected in the progeny viral genomes after four serial passages. Hybridization data suggest that at least some of these variant DNA I molecules contain simian virus 40 DNA sequences, monkey alpha-component DNA sequences (highly repetitive), and the infrequently reiterated monkey DNA sequences found in CVP8/1/P2 (EcoRI res), all covalently linked as in CPV8/1/P2 (EcoRI res). It appears that this type of variant emerges with some frequency during infection and is then preferentially replicated at 33 degrees C, thereby becoming readily detectable in passaged stocks. A variety of control experiments indicated that the repeated emergence of similar, if not identical, variants is unlikely to be the result of inadvertent cross-contamination or the presence of detectable amounts of the variant in the plaque-purified viral stocks.