Non-denaturing gel electrophoresis of biological nanoparticles: viruses.

Although gel electrophoresis is usually used for the fractionation of monomolecular particles, it is also applicable to the fractionation of the multimolecular complexes produced during both cellular metabolism and assembly of viruses in virus-infected cells. Gel electrophoretic procedures have been developed for determining both the size of a spherical particle and some aspects of the shape of a non-spherical particle. Capsids bound to DNA outside of the capsid can also be both fractionated and characterized. The procedures developed will be used for screening viral mutants; they also can potentially be used for diagnostic virology. Sensitivity of detection, the major current limitation, is being improved by use of both improved stains and scanning fluorimetry. The gels used for fractionation sometimes approximate random straight fiber gels, but become increasingly biphasic as the gel concentration is decreased.