Use of gum tragacanth overlay, applied at room temperature, in the plaque assay of fish and other animal viruses

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Microbiology
• Main Author: Dobos, P
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Microbiology 1976
• Subjects: Microbiology (medical); Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jcm.3.3.373-375.1976; https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/jcm.3.3.373-375.1976

Fish cells derived from rainbow trout gonad or Atlantic salmon are sometimes damaged by the relatively high temperature of agar overlay widely used for plaquing animal viruses. This heat-induced cell damage can be avoided by the use of gum tragacanth, which may be applied at room temperature. When the medium was buffered with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane-hydrochloride and NaHCO3, the plaque assay could be performed without the use of a CO2 incubator. Using this method, a number of animal viruses were plaqued on a variety of cell monolayers at different temperatures under atmospheric ocnditions.