We have investigated whether herpes simplex virus (HSV) contains structural polypeptides which are modified by myristic acid. We demonstrate that herpes simplex virions contain a family of myristylated proteins, Mr approximately 13,000 to 16,000. These were mapped, using HSV-1/HSV-2 intertypic recombinants, to 0.130 to 0.204 map units on the virus genome. Using anti-peptide sera, raised against the carboxyterminus of the predicted UL11 gene product, we have established that the myristylated virion polypeptides are products of the viral gene UL11.

Rotaviri,ses with genome rearrangements, isolated from a chronically infected immunodeficient child, were adapted to growth in BSC-1 cells. Preparations of viral RNA from fecal extracts showed a mixed atypical rotavirus RNA profile, which was due to the presence of at least 12 subpopulations of viruses grossly differing in genotype. Besides various forms of genome rearrangements involving segment 8-, 10-, and 11-specific sequences, reassortment in vivo was likely to have occurred during the emergence of these viruses. The protein products of viral genomes with various forms of segmental rearrangements seemed to be largely unaltered. Genome rearrangement is proposed to be a third mechanism directing the evolution of rotaviruses. Human rotaviruses, the main viral cause of infantile * Corresponding author.

No abstract

Rotaviruses isolated from pigs in China were grown in MA104 cells. One tissue-culture-adapted isolate consisted of two subpopulations (variants), the RNA profiles of which differed in the relative migration of RNA segment 4 only. The variants were separated by plaque purification and by recovery from limiting dilutions and remained genetically stable. The variant possessing the slower migrating RNA segment 4, called 4S, grew faster and formed large plaques after 4-6 days incubation, whereas the variant possessing the faster migrating RNA segment 4, called 4F, grew more slowly and formed only microscopic plaques after 10-14 days incubation. The protein product of the 4F RNA occurred in much lower concentration in infected cells than the product of the 4S RNA. The RNA segments 4 of the two variants were found to be closely related when tested by dot hybridization under stringent conditions. The 4S RNA is more resistant to denaturation with methyl mercuric hydroxide than is the 4F RNA. The relevance of these findings to the biological functions of rotaviruses is discussed.