Native molecular weight of adenovirus proteins: on the oligomeric structure of the fiber.

Fluorescamine-modification of amino groups was used to eliminate the influence of basic charge on the final migration position of protein's in alkaline pH polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis. As applied to adenovirus structural components, this type of analysis suggested the fiber to be composed of three identical subunits. The trimeric nature of both penton base and fiber therefore displaces the problem of symmetry mismatching to penton base and surrounding hexons at each vertex of the adenovirus icosahedron.