Myristoyl modification of viral proteins: assays to assess functional roles.

Characterization of the effects of myristoylation on poliovirus function has largely depended on the availability of methods previously characterized to study various aspects of virus biology. Those methods are described here to provide specific examples of how they may be used to analyze the myristoylation mutants and to illustrate general approaches. It is possible that the poliovirus protocols may be directly transferable with little or no modification to analyze other systems. However, it is more likely that the application of specific methods, which have already been developed and characterized for the systems of interest and which utilize the strengths and reagents unique to those experimental systems, may be more efficient and informative.