Cowpea Chlorotic Mottle Virus: Difference between revisions

First, virus can be directly extracted from plant leaves in high yields (1 kg of infected plant tissue can yield 1–2 g of virus<ref name=Liepold>PMID:Liepold16280622</ref>). By raising the pH to 7.5 and dissociating the capsid into dimers, the protein can be isolated from the RNA. The purified proteins can then self-assemble into functional virus-like particles under more acidic conditions.

A more modern approach involves the use of recombinant DNA technology. In this approach, the capsid-encoding genes of the virus can be transfected into a yeast expression vector.<ref name=Liepold>PMID:Liepold16280622</ref>) As the yeast replicate, they amplify the number of protein producing units, and the secreted protein products can be readily collected from the media. The major benefit to this strategy, aside from high yield production, is that the genome can be modified prior to insertion into the vector. This can allow the capsid subunits to take on differing chemical properties. This is best exemplified by the research of