An unusual plaque variant of rubella virus.

In a comparative study of 24 different rubella virus strains, all but three formed small plaques in RK 13 cell cultures; of these one was the vaccine strain HPV-77, one was isolated from a congenitally infected infant, and the third was recovered from an adult who contracted severe rubella while handling this congenital strain. Whereas the plaque size of the vaccine strain was stable after further passage in cell culture, the plaque size of the other two rapidly diminished when the virus was passed in monkey kidney cells, and one of them was also reduced by passage in RK 13 cells. Cell culture passage of the typical small plaque strains did not result in altered plaque size.