The amino acid composition of some insect viruses and their characteristic inclusion-body proteins

Abstract

The amino acid composition was detd. by quantitative paper chromatography. The 7 viruses analyzed all have a similar pattern of amino acid composition and this differs markedly from the pattern of the 8 inclusion-body proteins. Proportional to the total amino acid content, the former have a strikingly greater content of arginine and serine, and less lysine and tyrosine than the latter. There is more variability among the viruses than among the inclusion-body proteins, but significant differences exist between 2 members of either group. The differences in amino acid composition tend to parallel the morphological classification (Bergold, 1953) rather than the groupings based on the nucleic acid analysis (Wyatt, 1952).