Competitive fitness in coronaviruses is not correlated with size or number of double-membrane vesicles under reduced temperature growth conditions

Hawaa Al-Mulla, Lauren Turrell, Nicola Smith, Luke Payne, Surendranath Baliji, Roland Zust, Volker Thiel, Susan Baker, Stuart G Siddell, Benjamin Neuman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Positive-stranded viruses synthesize their RNA in membrane-bound organelles, but it is not clear how this benefits the virus or the host. For coronaviruses, these organelles take the form of double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) interconnected by a convoluted membrane network. We used electron microscopy to identify murine coronaviruses with mutations in nsp3 and
nsp14 that replicated normally while producing only half the normal amount of DMVs under low-temperature growth conditions. Viruses with mutations in nsp5 and nsp16 produced small DMVs but also replicated normally. Quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) confirmed that the most strongly affected of these, the nsp3 mutant, produced more viral RNA than wild-type virus. Competitive growth assays were carried out in both continuous and primary cells to better understand the contribution of DMVs to viral fitness. Surprisingly, several viruses that produced fewer or smaller DMVs showed a higher fitness
than wild-type virus at the reduced temperature, suggesting that larger and more numerous DMVs do not necessarily confer a competitive advantage in primary or continuous cell culture. For the first time, this directly demonstrates that replication and organelle formation may be, at least in part, studied separately during infection with positive-stranded RNA virus.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1107-1113
Number of pages9
JournalmBio
Volume5
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Competitive fitness in coronaviruses is not correlated with size or number of double-membrane vesicles under reduced temperature growth conditions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this