Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1982 Feb;41(2):353–359. doi: 10.1128/jvi.41.2.353-359.1982

Occurrence of temperature-sensitive influenza A viruses in nature.

C M Chu, S F Tian, G F Ren, Y M Zhang, L X Zhang, G Q Liu
PMCID: PMC256765  PMID: 7077746

Abstract

The origin and characteristics of the first naturally occurring temperature-sensitive (ts) strain of influenza A virus identified in 1973, Xia-ts, are described. Natural ts strains were found to occur in the early egg passage material of all influenza A subtypes examined, but the proportion of ts virus varied from 8.3% for old H1N1 virus (1949 to 1957) to 82.4% for recent H3N2 virus (1979 to 1980). A number of strains were found to be composed of a mixture of ts and wild-type (ts+) particles. Six natural ts strains with different shutoff temperatures and one ts+ strain of the H1N1 subtype were tested in antibody-free volunteers. Strains with a shutoff temperature of 38 degrees C or lower caused very mild symptoms, whereas those with a shutoff temperature of 39 degrees C and the ts+ strain were much more reactogenic. By complementation tests against a set of prototype WSN ts mutants with a defined genetic lesion, the ts lesion of two H3N2 viruses (HK/8/68 and Xia-ts) was located on the NP gene and that of two H1N1 viruses (Tianjin/78/77 and Beijing/1/79) was located on the M protein gene. The present study demonstrates the widespread occurrence in nature of influenza viruses of different degrees of temperature sensitivity and presumably of different degrees of virulence.

Full text

PDF
353

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chanock R. M., Richardson L. S., Belshe R. B., Kim H. W., Parrott R. H. Prospects for prevention of bronchiolitis caused by respiratory syncytial virus. Pediatr Res. 1977 Mar;11(3 Pt 2):264–267. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fenner F. The possible use of temperature-sensitive conditional lethal mutants for immunization in viral infections. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1972;31(0):131–144. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-3225-1_10. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Flamand A. Etude génétique du virus de la stomatite vésiculaire: classement de mutants thermosensibles spontanés en groupes de complémentation. J Gen Virol. 1970 Sep;8(3):187–195. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-8-3-187. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kung H. C., Jen K. F., Yuan W. C., Tien S. F., Chu C. M. Influenza in China in 1977: recurrence of influenzavirus A subtype H1N1. Bull World Health Organ. 1978;56(6):913–918. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Liu G. Q., Zhu J. M., Tian S. F., Ye Z. P., Wang S. Q. [Application of complementation-recombination method for identification of genetic lesion of temperature-sensitive influenza A viruses (author's transl)]. Zhongguo Yi Xue Ke Xue Yuan Xue Bao. 1981 Jun;3(2):71–75. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Mackenzie J. S. Isolation of temperature-sensitive mutants and the construction of a preliminary genetic map for influenza virus. J Gen Virol. 1970 Jan;6(1):63–75. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-6-1-63. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Murphy B. R., Chalhub E. G., Nusinoff S. R., Chanock R. M. Temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza virus. II. Attenuation of ts recombinants for man. J Infect Dis. 1972 Aug;126(2):170–178. doi: 10.1093/infdis/126.2.170. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Murphy B. R., Chalhub E. G., Nusinoff S. R., Kasel J., Chanock R. M. Temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza virus. 3. Further characterization of the ts-1(E) influenza A recombinant (H3N2) virus in man. J Infect Dis. 1973 Oct;128(4):479–487. doi: 10.1093/infdis/128.4.479. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Oxford J. S., Corcoran T., Schild G. C. Naturally occurring temperature-sensitive influenza A viruses of the H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes. J Gen Virol. 1980 Jun;48(Pt 2):383–389. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-48-2-383. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Simpson R. W., Hirst G. K. Temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza A virus: isolation of mutants and preliminary observations on genetic recombination and complementation. Virology. 1968 May;35(1):41–49. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(68)90303-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Spring S. B., Maassab H. F., Kendal A. P., Murphy B. R., Chanock R. M. Cold adapted variants of influenza A. II. Comparison of the genetic and biological properties of ts mutants and recombinants of the cold adapted A/AA/6/60 strain. Arch Virol. 1977;55(3):233–246. doi: 10.1007/BF01319909. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sugiura A., Tobita K., Kilbourne E. D. Isolation and preliminary characterization of temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza virus. J Virol. 1972 Oct;10(4):639–647. doi: 10.1128/jvi.10.4.639-647.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sugiura A., Ueda M., Tobita K., Enomoto C. Further isolation and characterization of temperature-sensitive mutants of influenza virus. Virology. 1975 Jun;65(2):363–373. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(75)90042-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES