Determination of measles virus protein molecular weights on high percentage, highly cross-linked SDS polyacrylamide gels.

A recent examination of measles virus mRNA molecules has shown that the nucleocapsid and haemagglutin messengers are of the size expected from a consideration of their protein products. However, the mRNA for membrane protein is approximately 50% larger than the size required. The molecular weight of matrix protein has been determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and this procedure can lead to an underestimation of the true size of hydrophobic molecules which show increased SDS binding. It is therefore appropriate to examine the molecular weight determination of this protein to exclude such an artefactual discrepancy in mRNA and protein sizes. We report here that measles virus membrane protein does not shown such anomalous behaviour and confirm that the size discrepancy is a true phenomenon.