Detection of circular and linear herpesvirus DNA molecules in mammalian cells by gel electrophoresis

A simple gel technique is described for the detection of large, covalently closed, circular DNA molecules in eucaryotic cells. The procedure is based on the electrophoretic technique of Eckhardt (T. Eckhardt, Plasmid 1:584-588, 1978) for detecting bacterial plasmids and has been modified for the detection of circular and linear extrachromosomal herpesvirus genomes in mammalian cells. Gentle lysis of suspended cells in the well of an agarose gel followed by high-voltage electrophoresis allows separation of extrachromosomal DNA from the bulk of cellular DNA. Circular viral DNA from cells which carry the genomes of Epstein-Barr virus, Herpesvirus saimiri, and Herpesvirus ateles can be detected in these gels as sharp bands which comigrate with bacterial plasmid DNA of 208 kilobases. Epstein-Barr virus producer cell lines also show a sharp band of linear 160-kilobase DNA. The kinetics of the appearance of this linear band after induction of viral replication after temperature shift parallels the known kinetics of Epstein-Barr virus production in these cell lines. Hybridization of DNA after transfer to filters shows that the circular and linear DNA bands are virus specific and that as little as 0.25 Epstein-Barr virus genome per cell can be detected. The technique is simple, rapid, and sensitive and requires relatively low amounts of cells (0.5 X 10(6) to 2.5 X 10(6)).