Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of two bovine enterovirus plaque variants.

Large plaque (4LP) and small plaque (4SP) variants were derived from a parent bovine virus strain by serial plaque passage. Both 4LP and 4SP were resistant to chloroform and stabilized at 50 degrees C for one hour by 1.0 M magnesium chloride. Both 4LP and 4SP had buoyant densities in cesium chloride of 1.36 gm/ml. Antigenically, 4LP and 4SP were reciprocally cross neutralizable. The nucleic acid of 4LP was shown to be ribonucleic acid (RNA) by resistance of its infectivity to deoxynuclease (DNase) but not ribonuclease (RNase) and by increased incorporation of [(3)H]-uridine into cytoplasmic RNA in cells of virus infected cultures. In growth characteristics, both 4LP and 4SP had maximum adsorption times of 75 to 90 minutes but 4LP had more rapid replication and release rates and yielded nearly twice as many infectious units per cell as 4SP. The differences in growth properties correlated directly with the differential in plaque diameter which was 40-50%.