Action of urea on tobacco mosaic virus. II. The bonds between protein subunits.

The rate of urea degradation is not uniform over the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) rod, as might be expected since the protein subunits appear to be chemically identical. Only two stable intermediates are formed; the four components with sedimentation constants, S(40) (20), about 80, 120, 140, and 165 correspond to the two intermediates with and without RNA tails. Analysis of the reaction kinetics for the disappearance of whole virus and of the first intermediate was made in terms of a new hypothesis concerning protein bonding.