Nuclear Entry of Hepatitis B Virus Capsids Involves Disintegration to Protein Dimers followed by Nuclear Reassociation to Capsids (original) (raw)
Figure 2
Analysis of capsids by Nycodenz gradient ultracentrifugation and electron microcopy.
A–C: Nycodenz gradient ultracentrifugation using 50 ng of capsids. The graphs show the fractions (numbers below), their densities (right scales [g/ml] and dotted lines) and the radioactivity of the core protein bands based on phosphoimaging (left scales, arb. units). The autoradiographies below depict the radiography after SDS PAGE. A. P-rC, B. P-Mat-C. C. P-rC183S treated with 4 M urea prior to centrifugation. The figures demonstrate that P-rC exhibited a peak at 1.283 g/ml (1) while P-Mat-C showed a peak at 1.263 (2). core proteins from urea treated C183S P-rC migrated with a peak density of 1.156 g/ml (3). D. Electron micrograph of P-rC. Left panel: staining by phosphotungstic acid, middle panel: after incubation with Nycodenz, right panel: no stain. Note that contrast on the two right panels was enhanced as Nycodenz gives a faint contrast only. The bar represents 50 nm. The figure shows that Nycodenz diffuses into the capsids giving contrast within capsids lumen.