Effect of undiluted passage on the polypeptides of measles virus.

Measles virus induces a large polypeptide (L; mol. wt. 180 K), a large glycopolypeptide (H; mol. wt. 80 K), a nucleocapsid associated polypeptide (P; mol. wt. 70 K), a nucleocapsid polypeptide (N; mol. wt. 60 K), a second glycopolypeptide (F0; mol. wt. 60 K), a matrix or membrane polypeptide (M; mol. wt. 37 K) and a small polypeptide (S; mol. wt. 15 K). The second glycopolypeptide (F0) appears to be cleaved in purified measles virus. Defective interfering particles accumulate during passage of measles virus leading to a decrease in the amounts of virus-specific protein synthesized in infected cells. Even in the best preparations of purified measles virus, host proteins are always detected and these become more predominant in preparations with low infectivity.