Characterization of T4D virus by sedimentation field-flow fractionation

Abstract

Sedimentation field-flow fractionation (a non-destructive separation method) has been used to measure the molecular weight and density of T4D virus. The molecular weight was obtained under experimental conditions in which the major parameters governing retention in field-flow fractionation were varied to examine their effect on the calculated result. The parameters varied are (1) carrier density, (2) carrier velocity, (3) field strength, (4) injected sample volume and (5) column volume. Retention was not affected by flow-rate or sample volume injected. Effective molecular weights, calculated from a large number of experiments run under different conditions, had a mean and standard deviation of (100 ± 1)·10 6. The actual molecular weight, subject to greater uncertainty, was determined to be 317·10 6. The density calculated for the virus was 1.47 g/ml. A study of whether the sedimentation field-flow fractionation technique is destructive or not showed that the infectivity of the virus is affected very little by passage through the channel and detector system.