Reciprocal complementation of bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 lacking either the membrane or fusion gene

•We generated two defective bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 strains.•Two defective viruses could be maintained in cell cultures by co-infection.•This method would be useful to express large or multiple proteins in cell cultures.

Two defective bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (BPIV3) strains were generated, one lacking the membrane (M) protein gene and expressing EGFP (ΔM-EGFP) and the other lacking the fusion (F) protein gene and expressing mStrawberry (ΔF-mSB), by supplying deficient proteins in trans. When Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) cells were co-infected with ΔM-EGFP and ΔF-mSB at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.1, complemented viruses were easily obtained. Complemented viruses grew as efficiently as wild-type BPIV3 and could be passaged in MDBK cell cultures even at an MOI of 0.01, possibly due to multiploid virus particles containing genomes of both ΔM-EGFP and ΔF-mSB. This reciprocal complementation method using two defective viruses would be useful to express large or multiple proteins in cell cultures using paramyxovirus vectors.