A. Gallery of detergent-stripped HSV. Note the halo of mesh-like material representing the tegument and attached to the orthogonal capsid. Such HSV viral particles stripped of envelope are transported in the retrograde direction when injected into the giant axon of the squid.
B. Enveloped virus. Intact virus is larger than stripped particles (~230 nm in diameter) and displays the typical studded smooth membrane surface, which is lost upon stripping with detergent and salt. These intact virions do not move in the retrograde direction when injected into the axon.
C. Naked nucleocapsids. Virus lacking both envelop and tegument appear as sharply delineated orthogonal particles without a halo. (From Bearer et al. 2000, Proc. Nat. A cad. Sci., by permission)
Note: Viral particles are significantly larger than most axoplasmic organelles shown in Fig. (1).