Dispersion of aggregated barley stripe mosaic virus by detergents

Unpurified barley stripe mosaic virus aggregated in 1 hour at 40°. The aggregated virus was dispersed by several detergents, of which the best was Igepon T-73, with the active ingredient sodium N-methyl N-oleoyl taurate. As judged by the amount of infectivity in the virus zone after density-gradient centrifugation, 0.01 to 0.5 % of this detergent dispersed about 90 % of previously aggregated virus. The detergent also dispersed host colloidal particles of the size range of viruses to give particles of much lower density than the virus. These could be easily separated from the virus by density-gradient centrifugation. Igepon T-73 appeared to cause a slight decrease in stability of the virus. Incorporation of 0.1 % detergent in the diluent used for infectivity assays had no effect on the virus titer in four of seven experiments but lowered the titer to one-quarter as much as in the control in the other experiments. The dispersing ability of Igepon T-73 varied with the buffer and was reversed by Tween 80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate).