Very rapid generation/amplification of defective interfering particles by vesicular stomatitis virus variants isolated from persistent infection.

Multiply cloned variants of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) were found to generate/amplify defective interfering (DI) particles at a rate greatly exceeding the rates normally observed for wild-type VSV (or for other mutants of VSV). A single undiluted passage of the first clonal pool of this variant virus produced concentrated visible bands of DI particles on sucrose gradients whereas wild-type and other mutant strains of VSV required from three to six or more serial undiluted passages. Since DI particle amplification by wild-type VSV at each undiluted passage can exceed 10,000-fold enrichment, these variant virus clones were generating/amplifying DI particles many millions of times more rapidly than were wild-type and other mutant strains of VSV. This rate of generation/amplification is so high that it was not feasible to obtain accurate estimates of the rates of generation (or amplification) of these DI particles.