Vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein does not determine the site of virus release in polarized epithelial cells.

In polarized epithelial cells, the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein is segregated to the basolateral plasma membrane, where budding of the virus takes place. We have generated recombinant viruses expressing mutant glycoproteins without the basolateral-membrane-targeting signal in the cytoplasmic domain. Though about 50% of the mutant glycoproteins were found at the apical plasma membranes of infected MDCK cells, the virus was still predominantly released at the basolateral membranes, indicating that factors other than the glycoprotein determine the site of virus budding.