Sindbis virus with a tricomponent genome.

We established a system for propagation of Sindbis virus (SIN)-based replicons in tissue culture in the form of a tricomponent genome virus. Three RNA fragments containing complementing genetic information required for virus replication are packaged into separate viral particles, and each cell produces at least 1,000 packaged replicons and the number of packaged helpers sufficient to perform the next passage. This system can be used to generate large stocks of packaged replicons. The formation of infectious recombinant SIN virus was not detected in any experiments. These features make multicomponent genome SIN an attractive system for a variety of research and biotechnology applications.