STUDY OF A NEW STRAIN OF PARAMYXOVIRUSES ISOLATED FROM WILD DUCKS - STRUCTURAL POLYPEPTIDES

By polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Duck/Mississippi/75 virus was shown to contain five different types of polypeptides of mol. wt. ranging from 76 x 103 to 43 x 103, two of which were glycosylated (mol. wt. 76 x 103 and 57 x 103). A comparison of this data with similar results obtained using Yucaipa and Newcastle disease virus (NDV) revealed a similarity with NDV, concerning the number, position and mol. wt. of the polypeptides. Haemagglutinating and neuraminidase properties are associated with surface glycoproteins which represent at least 40% of the virus protein. After KCl and Triton X-100 treatment and centrifugation on linear sucrose density gradients (10 to 25%, w/w) it was possible to isolate glycoprotein VPI of mol. wt. 76 x 103 with which haemagglutinating and neuraminidase activities were associated.