David Rowlands collection

Each year, the Microbiology Society Council offer Honorary Membership to distinguished microbiologists who have made a significant contribution to the science. In 2019, David J. Rowlands (Emeritus Professor of Virology, University of Leeds) was appointed an Honorary Member.
This collection brings together Journal of General Virology articles authored by David Rowlands.
Collection Contents
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Host Cell Selection of Antigenic Variants of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus
SUMMARYFoot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) A22 Iraq 24/64 adapted to grow in BHK monolayer cells induced antibodies which neutralized many isolates belonging to the A serotype. Plaque-purified virus isolated from this stock also induced broadly reactive antibodies, showing that this property is not due to the combined response to a mixture of variants in the original stock virus. However, viruses obtained by passage in suspension BHK cells of either the monolayer cell-adapted virus or a virus cloned from this stock resulted in the selection of virus which induced antibodies with highly specific neutralizing activity. In addition to their antigenic properties the monolayer and suspension cell-adapted viruses could be distinguished by plaque morphology, tendency to aggregate and ability to attach to BHK cells. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) induced with the plaque-purified monolayer-adapted virus had neutralizing activity almost as broad as polyclonal serum, showing that this property can be represented by a single epitope on the virus. These neutralizing MAbs recognize a trypsin-sensitive epitope on the virus. Surprisingly, sequence analysis of the structural protein-coding regions of the genomic RNAs of monolayer and suspension cell-adapted viruses showed no amino acid differences in VP1, the protein known to contain the major neutralization epitope in FMDV and to be the only protein susceptible to cleavage by trypsin in the virus particle. Although three coding differences were found in the capsid protein these were all located in VP2.
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A High Density Component in Several Vertebrate Enteroviruses
More LessSUMMARYIn addition to the major infective component, which bands at a density of 1.34 g/ml in caesium chloride (‘light component’), a component with a density of 1.44 g/ml (‘heavy component’) has been found in harvests of poliovirus (type 1), Coxsackie B5 virus, a bovine enterovirus (VG-5-27) and swine vesicular disease virus (SVDV). With SVDV about 98% of the infectivity equilibrated at 1.34 g/ml but approx. 2% was present as a peak at 1.44 g/ml. The morphology of the two forms was similar but the heavy component had a smaller diameter (28 nm) than the light component (30 nm). No inter-conversion of the two forms was observed on re-cycling in fresh caesium chloride gradients and the two components had the same proportions of RNA and protein and the same polypeptide composition. Each component gave a similar proportion of the light and heavy forms on replication, but the light component had a specific infectivity about fourfold higher than that of the heavy component and was also much more efficient in eliciting the formation of neutralizing antibodies in guinea pigs. Although these results suggest that the two particles are alternative stable configurations of the virus, iodination failed to reveal any differences in the extent or pattern of labelling of the polypeptides in the two forms.
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