Aggregation of encephalomyocarditis virus induced by radio-iodination

Radio-iodination causes encephalomyocarditis virus to behave aberrantly when examined by affinity chromatography and to sediment rapidly during analysis on sucrose density gradients suggesting that aggregation had taken place. The change in physical properties of the virus occurred whether iodination was carried out with ¹²⁵I or ¹³¹I, with radio-iodine from two different sources, or using two different iodination procedures. The changes were not observed in virus subjected to an iodination procedure in the absence of radio-iodine suggesting that modification of tyrosine residues was involved rather than a side reaction such as amino acid oxidation. It is recommended that caution be exercised when following the fate of radio-iodinated virus in any particular study because its behaviour may not reflect that of normal, non-iodinated virus present.