Carrier-free zone electrophoresis of infectious ribonucleic acid derived by phenol and sodium dodecylsulfate methods from purified foot-and-mouth disease virus

Abstract

Infectious ribonucleic acid (RNA) from foot-and-mouth disease virus collected during electrophoresis had negative mobilities at ionic strength 0.1, pH 8.6, of 11.65 and 10.94 × 10 −5 cm 2/V. second when prepared by phenol or acidic-sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) methods, respectively. At pH 5.0, these mobilities wore increased to 12.46 and 11.79. Phenol treatment of SDS-prepared RNA increased the mobility of the latter to that of RNA prepared by phenol extraction only. But SDS extraction following phenol extraction did not lower the mobility. By schlieren optical measurements, more than 90% of the viral RNA in all preparations was degraded and of higher mobility than infectious RNA. Portions of this breakdown occurred during both extraction of RNA from the virus and equilibration of the RNA against electrophoretic buffer solutions.