ELECTROPHORETIC STUDIES ON PR8 INFLUENZA VIRUS

Crude preparations of PR8 influenza virus, obtained by high-speed centrifugation, contain two electrophoretically distinct components. One of these, present to the extent of 10 to 20 per cent, was identified by electrophoresis, centrifuge, and activity tests, as an impurity similar to or identical with a high molecular weight acidic substance shown by Knight to be elaborated by normal uninfected embryos. The other component, present to the extent of 80 to 90 per cent, appeared to represent the active virus. The virus fraction was separated from the impurity by repeated fractional centrifugation. It then appeared homogeneous in the analytical centrifuge and in the Tiselius apparatus, and possessed an isoelectric point at pH 5.3 as measured by the micro-electrophoresis method.