Investigation of genetic interaction between simian rotavirus SA11 and reovirus

Rotavirus and reovirus are physically and genetically very similar. Their genetic interaction would have important implications for understanding both the epidemiology of rotavirus and the biological basis of rotavirus pathogenicity. A permissive line of rhesus macaque kidney cells, MA104, was infected with the simian rotavirus SA11 and various temperature sensitive mutants of reovirus (type 3 groups A, B, C, D, G, type 1 M79, and type 2 122). The mixed cell infections were carried out at permissive temperature in the presence of absence of proteolytic enzymes, and the progeny were plated at a non-permissive temperature in mouse L cells, which are non-permissive to SA11. The progeny clones were labelled with 32P and analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. There was no evidence for genetic reassortment. Under this heavy selection pressure, such reassortment would have been apparent if it occurred with a frequency greater than 10-5 to 10-3.