Electron Microscopic and Bioassay Studies on a Murine Leukemia Virus (Rauscher). I. Effects of Physicochemical Treatments on the Morphology and Biological Activity of the Virus

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Abstract
The availability of a purified and highly potent virus preparation, the bioassay of which is accurate and relatively rapid, made feasible a study of the effects of physicochemical treatments on the morphology and infectivity of this murine leukemia virus. Among the treatments used were ether, ethanol, formalin, trypsin, Triton x-100, 10 freeze-thaw cycles, temperatures of −70°, 4°, 37°, and 56° C, centrifugal force, pellet resuspension, lyophilization, and osmotic shock. Each preparation was examined electron microscopically after negative staining with phosphotungstate and bioassayed for infectivity. Preparations with a large number of intact particles had higher infectivity than those in which the virus appeared to have been damaged. The type and severity of the different morphological alterations, particularly the loss of the “tail-like” extensions, correlated with decreasing infectivity. The conclusion was that this virus is morphologically labile. Of special interest was the finding that treatment with distilled water resulted in disrupted particles with an apparent release of particulate structures whose size, shape, and periodicity suggested a viral nucleoid origin. The possible identity and significance of these and other structures are discussed.

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