Purification and properties of bean pod mottle virus and associated centrifugal and electrophoretic components

Abstract

Purified preparations of crystalline bean pod mottle virus derived from single lesion isolates exhibited three schlieren peaks in the analytical ultracentrifuge with sedimentation coefficients of 54, 91, and 112 s. Separation of the three components by density-gradient centrifugation in sucrose and CsCl followed by droplet fractionation showed that infectivity was associated only with the 112 s component and the most dense major component, respectively. The separated components showed no serological differences, but did differ in nucleic acid content. All preparations showed two electrophoretic components in the Tiselius cell which were separable by continuous flow paper electrophoresis. Both components were infectious and serologically indistinguishable. Each electrophoretic component contained at least the middle and bottom centrifugal components in equal amounts and each of these two centrifugal components contained the two electrophoretic components.