Study of tobacco mosaic virus in vitro disassembly by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and agarose gel electrophoresis

Abstract

In vitro disassembly of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) strains U1, U2, U4, U6, and U7 with alkali and urea was studied by sucrose or sucrose–dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) density gradient centrifugation and by agarose gel electrophoresis. All strains gave similar decapsidation patterns with both agents when partially stripped virus particles (PSVs) were analyzed by sedimentation and electrophoresis. However, U6 was more sensitive to decapsidation than the other strains and U2 exhibited resistance to decapsidation. Agarose gel electrophoresis of TMV decapsidation products allowed the detection of several classes of PSVs in addition to aggregation products involving PSVs and monomer particles. Agarose gel electrophoresis is thus very rapid and useful for analysis of TMV disassembly products especially when aggregation phenomena and kinetic studies with numerous samples are considered.