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J Virol. 1974 September; 14(3): 672-678
Copyright © 1974 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Distribution of the Receptor Sites for Sindbis Virus on the Surface of Chicken and BHK Cells

^a Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109

ABSTRACT

Sindbis virus was adsorbed to chicken cells or to BHK cells, and the distribution of virus over the surface of the cell was examined by electron microscopy of surface replicas. The distribution of virus particles on the cell was used to indicate the position of virus receptors at the cell surface. When purified Sindbis virus was adsorbed at 37 C to cells prefixed with glutaraldehyde, the virus particles were evenly distributed over the surface of most cells. There was a large variability from cell to cell, however, in the number of virus particles adsorbed, and regions with different concentrations of virus particles were sometimes observed on the same cell. The concentration of virus receptors observed varied from 20 to 160/µm² of cell surface, and, thus, the total number of virus receptors per chicken cell is on the order of 10⁵. When virus was adsorbed to unfixed cells at 4 C, the virus particles were clustered into aggregates varying from a few particles to large crystalline arrays (the latter seen only in chicken cells). These conditions are apparently conducive to virus aggregation, and this, coupled with free lateral diffusion of the virus-receptor complex in the cell membrane at 4 C, leads to the observed clustering.

¹ Present address: Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, England.

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