Suppressing recombination significantly reduces GFP reconstitution frequencies. Virus pairs were designed to suppress recombination in the rt, in, or both rt and in regions. GFP reconstitution frequencies were determined by measuring GFP, HSA and Thy titers and calculating the proportions of GFP+ cells in all infected cells. The data represent the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of at least three independent experiments; *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001 (one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-test).