Ultrastructural studies of partially solubilized polyhedral inclusion bodies of a baculovirus infecting Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval).

Polyhedra were solubilized under mild alkaline conditions and their structure during solubilization was studied by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Some new structural features such as the extent of virion-packing in a polyhedral body and the cavities remaining in polyhedral bodies following the release of the occluded particles are demonstrated. Some other, previously reported features, such as the presence of polyhedral "membrane" and the crystalline array of the soluble polyhedral protein are accentuated at the various stages of solubilization.