This protocol was designed for large-scale purification of herpesvirus particles by cell culture. Virions and capsids are isolated from extracellular culture media and cell nuclei, respectively. Purity and concentration of the purified samples are usually sufficient for structural studies with cryo electron microscopy and cryo electron tomography. The protocol should also be generally suitable for purifying herpesvirus virions and capsids for other types of studies.
Readers should cite both the Bio-protocol article and the original research article where this protocol was used:
Dai, X. and Zhou, Z. H. (2014). Purification of Herpesvirus Virions and Capsids. Bio-protocol 4(15): e1193. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.1193.
Dai, X., Yu, X., Gong, H., Jiang, X., Abenes, G., Liu, H., Shivakoti, S., Britt, W. J., Zhu, H., Liu, F. and Zhou, Z. H. (2013). The smallest capsid protein mediates binding of the essential tegument protein pp150 to stabilize DNA-containing capsids in human cytomegalovirus. PLoS Pathog 9(8): e1003525.