PEG Virus Precipitation Kit (ab102538)

You can use gentle sonication in a water bath to completely dissociate the pellet and then resuspend it in the virus resuspension solution. Make sure the sonication does not build heat in the sample.

This PEG Virus Precipitation Kit (ab102538) can be used to concentrate viruses and is not specific to a particular type. Although we list retroviruses, baculoviruses, lentiviruses, and phages on our datasheet, the list does not stop there and this kit should also work on enteroviruses / Picornaviruses.

The advantages of this PEG Virus Precipitation Kit are:
1. Ease of use, no need for ultracentrifugation and collection of the specific sucrose density layer.
2. High viral titer recovery and concentration.
3. Wide variety of viruses can be concentrated using this kit.
Please note we have not tested virus-like particles. It might be possible to concentrate them but this might need some optimization regarding volume of PEG solution and duration and speed of centrifugation used.

We have not tested the PEG virus precipitation kit with samples post-flocculation but assuming the product of the flocculation is an aqueous solution, the kit should be compatible with this sample. However, it is unknown how much more concentration of the virus can be achieved with the PEG precipitation after a flocculation method, or the percentage recovery compared to using just the PEG without flocculation. The two methods are meant to accomplish the same thing.

If the presence of glycerol or salts is not going to work for your specific EM experiment that you can resuspend the virus pellet in your own buffer of choice.

Yes, the concentrated virus produced by this kit can be used to produce purified viral DNA or RNA for sequencing.

1 - Trace amounts of PEG might remain in the viral pellet from this kit. Trace amounts of PEG in the virus suspension will not affect the use of theconcentrated virus. In some cases, PEG may increase virus infection efficiency.However, if it is desired, the trace amount of PEG can be removed by the following procedure:

i) Add 1 volume of solution containing 4 M KCl and 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH7.2 (not provided) to 3 volumes of the concentrated virus suspension.

ii) Alternatively, add solid KCl into the virus suspension to a final concentration of 1 M.

iii) Let stand on ice for 15 - 30 min.

iv) Spin at 12,000 x g for 10 min at 4°C to remove the precipitate.

v) Carefully collect the virus supernatant. Aliquot and store at -70°C for future use.


2 - There is no chloroform in any of the buffers in this kit.

1) We have not tested circovirus-but based on literature I think it should precipitate circovirus 2) Our kit formulation favors virus precipitation, but the purity (whether some proteins are co-precipitated) may depend on what is in the sample.