Studies on circular deoxyribonucleic acid. I. Isolation of bovine papilloma virus and characterization of its deoxyribonucleic acid.

A simple method is described for the isolation of bovine papilloma virus and its deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). As found with other representatives of this virus group, this DNA preparation contains two components, I and II, as shown by sedimentation and electron microscopic studies. Component I is a fast-sedimenting, twisted, circular DNA molecule and represents usually 70 to 90% of the DNA in the mixture. The direction of the twist in the superstructure is right-handed. Component II originates from I by one or more single-strand breaks and is the "relaxed" circular from of the viral DNA.