TY  - JOUR
TI  - Fitness Determinations in Vesicular Stomatitis Virus
AU  - Novella, Isabel  S.
VL  - 4
IS  - 6
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/03/20
SP  - e1074
C1  - Bio-protocol 2014;4:e1074
DO  - 10.21769/BioProtoc.1074
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.1074
AB  - Fitness is defined as the overall replicative ability. Testing whether a mutation (or combination of mutations) has an effect on fitness often relays on determining virus production as a surrogate measurement. However, viruses do not usually replicate in a void, and evolutionary speaking, it is key to determine replicative ability compared to other viruses, e.g. the relative fitness. John Holland developed a method for vesicular stomatitis virus based on the use of a neutral genetic marker that allows to distinguish two competitors and to measure accurately the relative ratio between the two during competition (Holland et al., 1991). The marker is a mutation in the external G glycoprotein that has no effect on the virus other than conferring resistance to a monoclonal antibody, I1. To measure fitness a marked test strain is mixed with a reference unmarked strain and the mixture is allowed to infect a cell monolayer. Ratios before and after competition are measured by plaque assay in the presence and absence of I1 antibody, and changes in ratio give the fitness value.
JF  - Bio-protocol
SN  - 2331-8325
PB  - Bio-protocol LLC.
BIO101  - False