Fig 5. Generation of recombinant MHV68 M2 reporter viruses.

(A) The M2-Thy1.1 or M2-mCherry reporter construct (Fig 1A) was incorporated at the M2 locus in the MHV68 H2bYFP background under the control of the native M2 promoter. C57BL/6 mice were infected at 1000PFU via the intraperitoneal route and splenocytes were harvested at 14 dpi. Statistics were determined by two-tailed unpaired t test with Welch’s correction. (B and C) Representative flow plots (left) and quantitation (right) of B220⁺YFP⁺ frequency in latently infected splenocytes were obtained from infections comparing the parental MHV68 H2bYFP virus and two (2) independent clones of either the MHV68 H2bYFP M2-mCherry (B) or M2-Thy1.1 (C) virus. Each data point represents one animal and the horizontal bar represents the mean.