Ion etching of tobacco mosaic virus and T4 bacteriophage.

A technique for the etching of biological materials by accelerated nitrogen ions is described. Upon exposure to such a beam, tobacco mosaic virus becomes thinner in diameter and the head of T4 becomes smaller. Experiments on radioactively labeled T4 suggest that the particle's protein is more susceptible to removal by the incident ions, and that the residual material is predominantly nucleic acid.