Target volume analysis of vaccinia virus: influence of virus dispersion and noninfectious particles.

These data indicate that 90% of monodisperse vaccinia virus (VV) has a D(37) dose of 1.0 x 10(4) +/- 0.2 x 10(4) rad when exposed to the direct effect of gamma radiation from (137)Cs and (60)Co sources. This D(37) dose yielded a targt size of approximately 10(8) daltons, close to the molecular weight of VV deoxyribonucleic acid. This target corresponds to the first component of the survival curve of VV. Noninfectious virus seemed to play a role on the slope and the proportion of the survival curve second component, suggesting that multiplicity reactivation takes place.