Structural changes associated with poliovirus inactivation in soil.

The loss of infectivity of poliovirus in moist and dried soils was a result of irreversible damage to the virus particles. The damage included (i) dissociation of viral genomes and capsids and (ii) degradation of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the soil environment. Under drying conditions, capsid components could not be recovered from the soils. Further studies in sterile soils indicated that, under moist conditions, the viral RNA was probably damaged before dissociation from the capsid. However, in sterile, dried soil, RNA genomes were recovered largely intact from the soil. These results suggest that polioviruses are inactivated by different mechanisms in moist and drying soils.