The Inequality of Potential in Influenza Virus for Adaptation to Mice

[摘要] A number of lines of Type B influenza virus were initiated in mice with one of a series of decimal dilutions of infected allantoic fluid. The lines were passed at a constant dilution. The yield of virus in the first mouse passage, and the amount of viral multiplication during subsequent transfers of each of these lines, appeared to be approximately the same. The lines became adapted in an order which corresponds closely to that of the dilutions used to start the lines in mice. The probability that this result occurred by chance was calculated to be two in one hundred. These findings indicate that each virus particle in a suspension of an unadapted line of influenza virus does not have an equal potential for adaptation to mice. Considerations have been presented which favor the hypothesis that adaptation results from the selection of mutants which occur during mouse passage. Hence, it may be inferred that virus in unadapted lines have an unequal potential for mutation in mice.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）