Studies of the mechanism of enhancement of human adenovirus infection in monkey cells by simian virus 40.

The defect which prevents human adenovirus replication in monkey cells and the mechanism whereby this restriction is overcome by coinfection with simian virus 40 (SV40) have been studied. Adenovirus capsid proteins are not synthesized efficiently in monkey cells in the absence of SV40. Adenovirus "enhancement" by SV40 was found to be the product of increased efficiency of replication by a small percentage of cells. This enhancement effect apparently occurred only when SV40 and adenovirus infected the same cells. These findings suggest that the replicative block occurs prior to virion assembly, and an accompanying report seeks to locate the site of restriction more precisely at the post-transcriptional level.