Читать книгу Principles of Virology - Jane Flint, S. Jane Flint - Страница 80

There are two main types of assay for detecting viruses: biological and physical. Because viruses were first recognized by their infectivity, the earliest assays focused on this most sensitive and informative property. However, biological assays such as the plaque assay and end-point titration methods do not detect noninfectious particles. In contrast, all particles are accounted for with physical assays such as electron microscopy or by immunological methods. Knowledge of the number of noninfectious particles is useful for assessing the quality of a virus preparation.