Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Gammaherpesvirus from a Microbat Cell Line

Shabman, Reed S.; Shrivastava, Susmita; Tsibane, Tshidi; Attie, Oliver; Jayaprakash, Anitha; Mire, Chad E.; Dilley, Kari E.; Puri, Vinita; Stockwell, Timothy B.; Geisbert, Thomas W.; Sachidanandam, Ravi; Basler, Christopher F.

Both the MVI-it RNA-seq and the supernatant transfer experiments described above suggested that this cell line actively harbored replicating BGHV8. Therefore, electron microscopy (EM) studies were performed in an attempt to visualize virus particles present in the MVI-it culture (Fig. 3 ). Viral particles at the plasma membrane, which may represent budding events, were observed (Fig. 3A) . Strikingly, arrays of virus capsid-like particles were also visible within the nucleus and enveloped capsid particles were present within the cytoplasm (Fig. 3B ). These images are consistent with EM images from gammaherpesvirus-infected cells, including murine gammaherpesvirus infection in mouse NIH 3T3 cells (22) , providing additional evidence that the MVI-it cell line persistently harbors replicating BGHV8.