Binding to sialic acids is not an essential step for the entry of animal rotaviruses to epithelial cells in culture.
The infection of target cells by animal rotaviruses requires the presence of sialic acids on the cell surface. Treatment of the cells with neuraminidases or incubation of the viruses with some sialoglycoproteins, such as glycophorin A, greatly reduces virus binding, with the consequent reduction of viral infectivity. In this work, we report the isolation of animal rotavirus variants whose infectivity is no longer dependent on the presence of sialic acids on the cell surface. In addition, although these variants bind to glycophorin A as efficiently as the wild-type virus, this interaction no longer inhibit viral infectivity. These observations indicate that the initial interaction of the mutants with the cell occurs at a site different from the sialic acid-binding site located on VP8, the smaller trypsin cleavage product of VP4. Reassortant analysis showed that the mutant phenotype segregates with the VP4 gene. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies directed to VP4 and VP7 were tested for their ability to neutralize the variants. Antibodies to VP7 and VP5, the larger trypsin cleavage product of VP4, neutralized the mutants as efficiently as the wild-type virus. In contrast, although antibodies to VP8 were able to bind to the mutants, they showed little or no neutralizing activity. The implications of these findings in rotavirus attachment to and penetration of epithelial cells in culture are discussed.