The component sugars of the influenza-virus particle

Abstract

The purine-bound pentose of influenza virus nucleic acid was identified chromatographically as ribose. The remainder of the virus carbohydrate, consisting of galactose, mannose, fucose and glucosamine, is built into a polysaccharide considered to be the carbohydrate moiety of a mucoprotein. Though the proportion of the component non-amino sugars is fairly constant, the total amounts of non-amino sugar and of amino sugar vary appreciably and independently. The potential host cells of the virus were found to produce mucoprotein with a carbohydrate moiety of similar composition to that of the virus.