FIG. 11.

Comparison of replication of wild-type virus and virus lacking the gN-gM complex. (A) Wild-type virus. Wild-type virus buds through the inner nuclear membrane and either follows the default exocytic pathway to the cell surface or undergoes a second step of de-envelopment and re-envelopment. Enveloped particles bind to a new cell and fuse with the cell membrane, and the capsid moves away from the membrane to the nucleus. (B) Virus lacking the gN-gM complex. Many gN-null capsids associate with condensed chromatin. A few appear as enveloped particles in vesicles, and a significant amount of the virus is released without an intact envelope. Virus that remains able to bind to new cells is impaired in infectivity at a step following fusion, perhaps involving movement of capsids away from the cell membrane to the nucleus.