Purification of filamentous plant viruses by thin layer centrifugation.
The construction of a modified thin layer ultracentrifuge rotor is described. This rotor was used in the purification of five filamentous plant viruses, viz. TMV, SCMV, PVX, SGV and YMC. The purification and concentration of these viruses in their monomeric forms is hazardous when conventional "tube" rotors are used since they invariably result in dissociation and aggregation of the virus particles. Using the thin layer rotor these infective agents may be concentrated in volumes of fluid equal to approximately 1% of the starting suspension and not as pellets obtained after ultracentrifugation is conventional "tube" rotors. Electron microscopy revealed that the virus particles concentrated by thin layer centrifugation  were not aggregated and that only few fragments of the virus filaments were present in the final preparations.
D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014461:Ultracentrifugation / Q000295:instrumentation