Some physico-chemical properties of the rigid form of the Sendai virus nucleocapsid.

The effect of some dissociation agents (SDS, beta-mercaptoethanol, urea, EDTA) on the rigid form of the Sendai virus nucleocapsid was studied. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of lytic mixture (1% SDS, 2% beta-mercaptoethanol, 5 M urea, for 2 min at 100 degrees C) revealed two types of polypeptide subunits (mol. wts. 46,000 and 14,000), as well as the dissociation in the presence of 0.1% SDS only. The EDTA treatment leads to a disorganization of the protein part (10(-2) M) or of the nucleocapsid structure (5 x 10(-2) M).