ABSTRACT
The demise of the host represents one extreme in the expression of rhabdovirus infection — the ultimate consequence of an initial encounter of a single cell with a lethal virus. In spite of the detailed catalogue raisonne of events which characterize death of the host or host cell, the molecular reactions which result in cell killing by animal viruses, or its prevention through antiviral agents or viral interference, still pose an enigma for the molecular virologist. Populations of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) were tested for their capacity to kill green monkey kidney-Vero cells by the single-cell survival procedure. If the expression of cell killing by VSV requires all viral gene functions, as presumably does the expression of infectivity, the survival curves for the inactivation of these two functions by ultraviolet radiation should be identical. The authors review cell killing by rhabdoviruses, in particular that due to the prototype, VSV. The ubiquitous host range of the rhabdoviruses is impressive.
