Controlled Disassembly and Purification of Functional Viral Subassemblies Using Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (AF4)

Viruses protect their genomes by enclosing them into protein capsids that sometimes contain lipid bilayers that either reside above or below the protein layer. Controlled dissociation of virions provides important information on virion composition, interactions, and stoichiometry of virion components, as well as their possible role in virus life cycles. Dissociation of viruses can be achieved by using various chemicals, enzymatic treatments, and incubation conditions. Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) is a gentle method where the separation is based on size. Here, we applied AF4 for controlled dissociation of enveloped bacteriophage phi 6. Our results indicate that AF4 can be used to assay the efficiency of the dissociation process and to purify functional subviral particles.