In an assay measuring virus-directed RNA synthesis, infection of BHK cells by a standard test dose of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) was inhibited by ultraviolet light-irradiated wt VSV and by is 045, one of a number of thermolabile, temperature-sensitive G protein mutants of VSV . After heat treatment for 1 h at 45°C, the thermolabile mutants were no longer able to inhibit the VSV infection . In contrast, the thermolabile M protein mutant is G31 and the nonthermolabile G protein mutant is 044 could still inhibit the test VSV dose . Thus,the presence of G protein in its native conformation was necessary for inhibition of infection . There was little difference in the binding to cells or the internalization to a trypsinresistant state of is 045 or wt VSV before and after heat treatment, and there was no evidence of specific saturable receptors on the cell surface . None of the irradiated virions at concentrations that gave maximal inhibition of infection could prevent binding of infectious VSV to, or internalization by, BHK cells . The G protein-specific inhibition, therefore, did not occur at the cell surface but must have occurred at some intracellular site, which has been suggested to be the lysosome . The lysosomal inhibitor chloroquine, when added with the infecting virus, completely inhibited VSV infection at all multiplicities of infection tested, and it gave 50% inhibition when added 1 .5 h after infection . The possible importance of the lysosome in the intracellular pathway of infection is discussed.
KEY WORDS vesicular stomatitis virus temperature-sensitive mutants -G protein thermolability virus binding -virus internalization chloroquineThe spike glycoprotein G of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)' has been shown to be essential to the ' Abbreviations used in this paper: VSV, vesicular stomatitis virus ; PBS, Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline ; MEM, Eagle's minimal essential medium; BES, N,Ninfectivity of VSV in BHK cells : both removal of the G protein by proteolysis (1) and coincubation of the cells with purified G protein in vesicular form (13) inhibit viral infection. It has been widely accepted, but not directly shown, that the importance of the G protein rests in its ability to enable VSV to attach to cells (2) . In this study, we have bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethane sulfonic acid; SFV, Semliki Forest virus ; BSA, bovine serum albumin; FCS, fetal calf serum ; m.o .i ., multiplicity of infection .J . CELL BIOLOGY