Solubilization of envelopes of HVJ (Sendai virus) with alkali-emasol treatment and reassembly of envelope particles with removal of the detergent.

The envelopes of HVJ (Sendai virus) virions were solubilized with alkali-Emasol treatment. The solubilized envelope subunit(s) associated with hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody blocking, neuraminidase, and low hemagglutinating (HA) activities had a sedimentation coefficient of 8.8S. Envelope fragment-like structures were assembled from the solubilized subunits after Emasol was removed by gel filtration. These reassembled envelope particles with HA activity had cell-fusion activity as well as hemolytic activity. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the reassembled particles revealed that they mainly consisted of two kinds of polypeptides.