[Localizing the major peptides of African swine fever virus and virus-associated enzymes in the virion structure].

African swine fever virus polypeptides with molecular weight of 120, 78, 69, 59, 56, 45, 39, 28, 26, 24, 16, and 14 kD are the major proteins in the purified virions, as shown by electrophoresis and immunoblotting. A mixture of proteases and pancreatic lipase hydrolyzed the polypeptides of 120 and 78 kD in viral preparations at low concentrations of enzymes, polypeptides of 69, 56, 45, 39, 28, and 14 kD disappeared after treatment with this mixture at medium concentrations, and 26 kD polypeptide was eliminated at a high concentration of the enzymes. The 21 kD polypeptide which did not react with the specific antiviral serum in immunoblotting was not hydrolyzed by proteases contaminating lipase. Treatment with triton X-100 and ether boosted the activity of DNA-dependent RNA-polymerase, whereas treatment with ether followed by resedimentation markedly decreased polymerase activity in the resultant sediment. Treatment with diethyl ether did not influence the activity of virus-associated ATPase, which was partially resistant to denaturating organic solvents acetone and chloroform-methanol mixture. Our findings and published data permitted us to propose a schematic arrangement of viral polypeptides and enzymes in the virion structure.