Selection of genome segments following coinfection of chicken fibroblasts with avian reoviruses.

Two avian reoviruses (883 and 176) shown to have distinct growth kinetics were used to coinfect chicken embryonic fibroblasts asynchronously to generate reassortants. More than 300 plaque-derived clones were obtained from passage 3 of two separate coinfections made at different m.o.i. and time intervals between infection and superinfection. The genome electropherotype of each plaque-derived clone was determined, and a diverse group of reassortants were detected. Genome segments 883 M2 and 176 S1 were shown to be preferentially selected. The preferential selection of the 176 S1 segment was shown to be a virus growth-determined nonrandom event conferred by the function of 176 S1 segment, whereas the data suggest that a factor(s) other than viral growth properties was involved in the preferential selection of 883 M2 segment.