A regular subunit pattern seen on non-infectious Newcastle disease virus particles.

A pseudo-crystalline array of subunits has been observed on particles of the La Sota, in contrast to the Ulster , strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) grown in MDBK tissue culture without trypsin. This regular arrangement of subunits was associated with the semi-permissive nature of the tissue culture system, as it disappeared when trypsin, which allows infectious virus to be made, was added. The phenomenon described was considered to be related to the crystalline array of matrix protein which has been described inside the envelope of Sendai virus and NDV by others.