Adaptation of transmissible gastroenteritis virus to growth in non-permissive Vero cells.

The CPK cells derived from swine kidney were infected with the attenuated TO-163 strain of transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus, and fused with uninfected Vero cells in the presence of polyethylene glycol. Repeated cocultivation of the fused cells with uninfected Vero cells rendered the virus to grow in Vero cells. The Vero cell-adapted virus acquired the ability to infect and produce cytopathic effects in several other non-permissive cell lines of non-porcine origin. No major differences in viral polypeptides were shown between the Vero cell-adapted TO-163 strain and its parent strain by indirect immunofluorescence and Western blotting using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies to TGE virus.