Heterogeneous Progeny Viruses Are Produced by a Budding Enveloped Phage

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Abstract
Infection of Acholeplasma laidlawii cells by the temperate enveloped mycoplasma virus L2 results in production of 3 morphological forms of progeny L2 virus:L2-I, L2-II and L2-III. These morphological forms can be separated by velocity sedimentation and agarose gel electrophoresis. The latter technique was used to size the quasi-spherical particles:2-I is 74 nm, L2-II is 88 nm and L2-III is 132 nm in diameter. The protein composition of the 3 L2 forms is the same, although there are differences in protein stoichiometric ratios. L2-I, L2-II and L2-III have th same 11.8 kilobase pair superhelical DNA genome. UV inactivation studies and restriction frequency measurements indicate that L2-I and L2-III each contain 1 genome copy, while L2-II contains 2-3 genome copies.