perhaps it can be determined in form of cell killing capacity or somehow other method?
Hello,
You can determine a 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCD50). It is the measure of infectious virus titer. This endpoint dilution assay quantifies the amount of virus required to kill 50% of infected hosts or to produce a cytopathic effect in 50% of inoculated tissue culture cells.
I agree with llya- this or determination of PFU should tell you at least something about virulence, however it does not necessarily mean the virulence would be same in the target host.
you can also look for how quickly it kills the cells, some takes only few hrs and some may produce the desired effect in few days.
Excellent suggestions thus far. The PFU experiment might let you also compare relative plaque size of different variants. When assayed on relevant cell lines at physiological temperatures larger plaques may indicate greater virulence... smaller plaques are often attenuated in vivo. If you do this assay you should try to infect at MOI of 0.01. And synchronizing infection by infecting on ice and then shifting to incubation temperature once the overlay is in place would also be good technique. And Satya's point about in vitro phenotypes and in vivo virulence must aways be considered paramount.
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