Morphogenesis of the nucleoprotein of vesicular stomatitis virus.

Accumulation of the nucleoprotein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in the cytoplasm of BHK-21 cells and in two of four human cell lines was demonstrated. Appearance and progression of the nucleoprotein inclusions paralleled development of virus-specific immunofluorescence and production of virus progeny. The inclusions appeared early as discrete foci of filamentous material which eventually increased in size to form large masses which replaced normal cytoplasmic constituents. The filamentous strands were found in close proximity to budding virions. The inclusion material was extracted from infected cells and purified in cesium chloride gradients. The isolated filaments resembled the ribonucleoprotein isolated from purified virions. They incorporated (3)H-uridine, exhibited virus-specific complement-fixing activity, had a buoyant density of 1.32 g/cm(3), and appeared as single wavy strands the width of which varied from 2.5 to 8.5 nm, depending on the angle of viewing.