Adaptation of primate cell-adapted hepatitis A virus strain HM175 to growth in guinea pig cells is independent of mutations in the 5′ nontranslated region

Previous studies of hepatitis A virus (HAV) genotypes after adaptation of wild-type virus to growth in cell cultures of primate origin identified determinants for growth in cell culture in the viral 2B and 2C protein-coding regions of the genome and demonstrated that an increased growth efficiency in a particular cell line was achieved by subsequent mutations in the 5' nontranslated region (5'NTR). The results reported in this study demonstrate that the passage of HAV adapted to primate BS-C-1 cells in guinea pig cells resulted in increased growth efficiency in the rodent cells and decreased growth efficiency in BS-C-1 cells. This adaptation occurred without mutation in the 5'NTR, but the viral 2B and 2C proteins seem to play a role during adaptation to the new environment, as one mutation occurred in each protein. Although the data presented here do not clearly identify which region of the viral genome underwent mutations to improve the interaction of the viruses with guinea pig proteins, they do confirm that the 5'NTR is not the only region responsible for providing host cell-specific information.