Early viral proteins in HeLa cells infected with adenovirus type 5 host range mutants

Several classes of adenovirus type 5 host range mutants have been isolated, These mutants replicate in Ads-transformed human embryonic kidney cells (293 cells) but at low multiplicities of infection fail to replicate in HeLa cells. Experiments are presented that demonstrate that these host range mutants form two complementation group;: group I maps in region E1a of the adenovirus genome and contains mutants hr1, hr2, dl311, and dl312; group II maps in region Elb and includes mutants hr6, hr7, dl313, and sub315. Mutants dl314 and sub316 both fail to efficiently complement any of the group I and II host range mutants. At low multiplicities of infection most group I mutants failed to produce detectable levels of virus proteins derived from regions E1, E2, or E3 of the viral genome. This group I phenotype was markedly depen(lent upon the multiplicity of infection; at a multiplicity of 100 PFU/cell, hr1-infected HeLa cells contained region E1b, E2, and E3 proteins, Group II mutants failed to produce only region E1b proteins; some of these mutants overproduced (two- to fivefold) region E2 and E3 proteins,.