Purification of murine alpha-herpesvirus and some properties of its DNA.

Strain Sumava Af of murine alpha-herpesvirus (MHV) banded in density gradient at the boundary between 10-20% and 20-30% Ficoll solution. In electron microscope, the partially purified virus visualized by negative staining exhibited intact or disrupted envelope structures and capsid particles of about 110 nm in outer diameter. The DNA extracted from partially purified virus and further purified in CsCl density gradient had the Tm-value of 79.0 degrees C. The molecular weight of about 90 million daltons was calculated for viral DNA according to its migration in agarose gel.