Subfractionation of CsCl-purified H-1 parvovirus on metrizamide gradients

The different density classes of H-l parvovirus, collected within 30 hr of infection of par-asynchronous cultures, following the standard CsCl purification step, have been shown to be heterogeneous. Rebanding of the denser form (HF, p = 1.46 g/cm3) and the less dense form (LF, p = 1.42 g/cm3) of infectious virus in the nonionic density generating solute, metrizamide, showed that both HF and LF virus bands were heterogeneous in density. The infectivity banded with isotopically labeled virus protein and DNA at 1.32 g/cm3 for both HF and LF virus. Amounts of protein and DNA which varied from preparation to preparation, but which were greater from the HF virus band, were distributed throughout the rest of the gradient, but predominated in a peak at a density of 1.2 g/cm3. The protein in this peak was without hemagglutinating activity but had the molecular weights and proportions of the H-l virion proteins (VPl, VP2', and VPZ). The DNA was of the same size as H-l DNA monomers and its proportion to the protein was similar to that of the infectious peak. The DNA was susceptible to micrococcal nuclease digestion. The nature of this noninfectious viral material thus seemed to be incompletely assembled virus. Radiolabeled H-l virus collected after 72 hr of infection formed a discrete single peak in both CsCl (p = 1.42 g/cm3), and metrizamide gradients (p = 1.32 g/cm3). There was no significant amount of the 1.20 g/cm3 viral protein-DNA complex in these mature preparations.