Superinfection with poliovirus of HeLa cells already infected with encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus does not inhibit translation of EMC viral mRNA, whereas residual host translation is completely inhibited. This result indicates that the cap recognition factors inactivated by poliovirus are not required for translation of EMC viral mRNA in vivo, in agreement with previous in vitro experiments. This raises the question of why EMC virus has evolved a capindependent translation mechanism.
