Spatial Effect of Reovirus Co-infection on Production of Rotavirus

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in children under the age of five, globally causing more than half a million deaths per year.  Widespread use of vaccination has decreased the occurrence of rotavirus disease in the United States, but the cost and strict time constraints of these vaccines make them difficult to implement in developing countries.  Reovirus belongs to the same family of viruses as rotavirus and can infect the same host organism, but rarely causes disease in humans.  Previous studies in this laboratory have shown that Rhesus Rotavirus production is inhibited during co-infection with Reovirus serotype 3 (MRV-3DE). Using monoreassortant viruses for each gene of the segmented Reovirus genome, four genes of MRV-3DE were identified that are associated with the inhibition of Rotavirus replication during co-infection with Reovirus.  Immunofluorescent staining of cells infected with each virus alone and during co-infections with both, coupled with confocal microscopy, will reveal the normal cellular compartments in which each virus replicates and assembles new progeny virus.  My hypothesis is that the normal compartmentalization that occurs in singly infected cells with be disrupted in co-infected cells and these observations will serve as a basis for developing a molecular model to explain virus completion/inhibition during co-infections.  This information could potentially lead to alternative treatments of rotavirus infection in developing countries.