Heterogeneity of apparently complete poliovirus particles.

Tumilowicz, Joseph J. (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.), and Klaus Hummeler. Heterogeneity of apparently complete poliovirus particles. J. Bacteriol. 87:1105-1113. 1964.-A chromatographic procedure was developed for separating the N from the H complement-fixing antigen of poliovirus. This procedure concomitantly effected some separation of classes of N particle. The ratio of physical virus particles (PVP) to plaque-forming units (PFU) in N-reactive fractions varied from 6 to 51. Fractions with the lowest PVP-PFU ratios represented a considerable enrichment of PFU, when compared with the original ratio in each experiment. A direct relationship was found between the ratio of complement-fixing units of N antigen [CFU(N)] to 10(10) PVP and the ratio of PFU to 10(10) PVP for most of the N-reactive fractions. Large differences among the PVP-CFU(N) ratios, along with relatively constant PFU-CFU(N) ratios for most of the N fractions, indicated that N antigen is not distributed equally among non-H particles. Two possibilities, both compatible with the results, were discussed for the manner in which N antigen might be distributed. An absolute value of 10(7) PVP-CFU(N) was proposed for particles with a PVP-PFU ratio of 1.