Coronavirus IBV: further evidence that the surface projections are associated with two glycopolypeptides.

The surface projections (peplomers) of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strain M41 have been separated from the nucleocapsid (N) and matrix (M) proteins by sedimentation in a sucrose gradient after virus disruption by the non-ionic detergent Nonidet P40. The peplomers comprised two glycopolypeptides of mol. wt. 90 X 10(3) (90K; S1) and 84K (S2), shown by analysis of differentially radiolabelled virus to be present in equimolar proportions. Polypeptides of 75K and 110K, which were detected by Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining in similar amounts to S1 and S2 in some unlabelled virus preparations, were absent from peplomer preparations and are probably host cell polypeptides. The S1:S2:N:M polypeptide molar ratio for IBV-M41 was approximately 1:1:6:15.