Chemical and physical properties of adeno-associated satellite virus DNA produced during coinfection with herpes simplex virus.

Infectious DNA from adeno-associated satellite virus (ASV) has been isolated from cells coinfected with a temperature-sensitive mutant of herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 in the absence of contaminating HSV DNA. This satellite virus DNA does not appear to differ in its physical, chemical and biological properties from DNA isolated directly from virions or from cells co-infected with adenovirus. The DNA is double-stranded with a buoyant density of 1.718 gm/cm(3). It sediments at 16S in both neutral and alkaline sucrose gradients. Single-stranded DNA from alkaline sucrose gradients has a modal length of 1.5 mum and demonstrates evidence of internal redundancies in the electron microscope.