Genetic complementation among three panels of mouse hepatitis virus gene 1 mutants

Temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant viruses have been useful for the study of replication processes in many viral systems. To determine how our panel of MHV-JHM-derived RNA(-) ts mutants (Robb et al, 1979) is genetically related to other panels of MHV RNA-ts mutants, we tested our mutants for complementation with representatives from two different sets of MHV-A59 ts mutants (Koolen et al, 1983; Schaad et al, 1990). These three ts mutant panels together comprise eight genetically distinct complementation groups. Considerable genetic similarity was observed among the three mutant panels. Only three complementation classes are unique to their particular mutant panel, and genetically equivalent mutants were not observed within the other two mutant panels. There are two overlapping complementation groups between the mutant sets derived from MHV-A59 and four overlapping complementation classes between the MHV-JHM panel and the MHV-A59 panels. Two complementation groups had representative mutants in all three mutant panels. One of these latter complementation classes demonstrated nonreciprocal complementation patterns consistent with intragenic complementation. (C) 1998 Academic Press.