Temperature-sensitive mutants of vesicular stomatitis virus: in vitro studies of virion-associated polymerase.

The temperature dependence of the virion-associated polymerase activity of six temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of vesicular stomatitis virus (tsW10, 11, 14, 16B, 28, and 29) has been examined in vitro and compared to the heat-resistant parent (HR). The polymerase of five of the mutants (tsW10, 11, 14, 16B, and 28) appears to be significantly more ts than that of HR. Because certain pairs of these five mutants can complement each other's in vitro polymerase activity, it appears that in vitro some components involved in the polymerase of one virion can be utilized by another virion. Examination of 19 revertants of tsW11 and tsW16B which had regained their ability to replicate at 38 C showed that their in vitro polymerase activity had also become less ts. Furthermore, it was found that the pairs of mutants which showed in vitro complementation of polymerase activity at 38 C were those which had shown complementation in yielding infectious progeny in mixedly infected cells. These two observations suggest that the ts behavior of the in vitro polymerase activity of the five mutants is related to their inability to replicate at the nonpermissive temperature.