Fig 7.

Nuclease and PK digestion of fractionated and unfractionated NCs. (A) Sucrose gradient fractions 6, 9, and 12 prepared from lysates without prior MNase treatment (Fig. 5) were digested with MNase or DNase I as described in Materials and Methods. The reaction mixtures were incubated with 0.5% SDS and 0.6 mg/ml PK to release the NC-associated DNA, which was then resolved on a native agarose gel and detected by Southern blotting. (B) Cytoplasmic lysate prepared from induced HepAD38 cells was treated with MNase (lane 2) or PK (lane 4) or was mock treated (lanes 1 and 3). Samples loaded onto lanes 1 and 2 were subsequently treated with 0.5% SDS and 0.6 mg/ml PK. All samples were then resolved on a native agarose gel and subjected to Southern blotting to detect HBV DNA.