ANALYSIS OF RETROVIRAL PROTEINS BY 2-STEP DNA, ZINC-BINDING, AND MODIFIED SOUTHERN-WESTERN BLOTTING

Using Southern-Western and zinc-blotting techniques, the interactions of single-stranded DNA and zinc with structural proteins of type B, C, and D retroviruses were examined. Besides nucleic capsid proteins of retroviruses known to form complexes with nucleic acids, some other co re proteins of type C retroviruses were shown to bind nucleic acids. A ll nucleic capsid proteins of the examined retroviruses appeared to be also zinc binding. In the present report, we propose two protein-blot ting techniques that could be performed on a single nitrocellulose mem brane. A first technique allows to detect zinc- and DNA-binding protei ns immobilized on the membrane; a second (a modification of Southern-W estern blotting) makes it possible to detect DNA-binding proteins foll owed by immunological reprobing.