The isolation of recombinants between related orbiviruses

Temperature-sensitive mutants of the related orbiviruses, Wallal and Mudjinbarry, recombine with high frequency when grown in pairs in cell culture. The genome of each virus consists of discrete segments of double-stranded RNA and high frequency recombination suggests that reassortment of genome segments occurs rather than classical recombination. Electrophoresis in acrylamide gels of RNA extracted from the progeny of a cross between Wallal ts 101 and Mudjinbarry ts 3 mutants, revealed that three plaque isolates of 60 tested differed in RNA pattern from each of the parent viruses and from each other. Further analysis of the electrophoretic profiles suggested that the isolates were recombinants with RNA segments derived from each of the parent viruses.