FIG. 3.

(a) Kinetics of cleavage measured for wild-type VLPs at different pH values. VLP procapsids were exposed to the designated pH, and aliquots were frozen in liquid nitrogen at the time points indicated. SDS gel analysis was then performed, and the fraction of subunits cleaved was determined by optical scanning of the gels to determine the amount of alpha and beta at the time point. The maximum initial rate was measured for particles incubated at pH 5. (b) A typical SDS-PAGE gel (wild-type NωV) under conditions of a time course incubation at pH 5.0.