Adaptation of plaque assay methods to the in vitro quantitation of the radiation leukemia virus.

A modification of the XC cell procedure for murine leukemia virus assay which yields quantitative data over a wide range of virus concentrations is described. By using serial passage of infected cell cultures and reversal of the plating sequence in the XC procedure, titers of radiation leukemia virus (RadLV) were obtained which were about 10-fold higher than those found by using the conventional assay. By using the modified procedure, it was observed that, even at high multiplicities of infection, less than 10% of the cells function as infective centers, although the proportion increases with serial passage. It was also observed that exposure of infected cells to UV light, which is commonly used to make plaques more visible in the conventional XC cell test, inhibits plaque formation in the RadLV system. Substitution of X irradiation for UV exposure improved plaque visibility without loss of sensitivity.