The use of immunoprecipitation to study the synthesis and cleavage processing of viral proteins.

Several factors have been considered in developing an immunoprecipitation procedure which minimizes the background of non-immunospecifically precipitated protein. The procedure evolved utilizes the technique of direct immunoprecipitation (specific antibody plus sufficient unlabeled antigen to form a precipitable complex). High speed centrifugation of the cell extract immediately prior to immunoprecipitation and the use of test tubes coated with silicone greatly reduced background precipitation.