Wiley Online Library: Book Article. Antiviral_effect. Matrosovich_-_slides_for_NISN. Detecting viruses: the plaque assay. One of the most important procedures in virology is measuring the virus titer – the concentration of viruses in a sample. A widely used approach for determining the quantity of infectious virus is the plaque assay. This technique was first developed to calculate the titers of bacteriophage stocks. Renato Dulbecco modified this procedure in 1952 for use in animal virology, and it has since been used for reliable determination of the titers of many different viruses. To perform a plaque assay, 10-fold dilutions of a virus stock are prepared, and 0.1 ml aliquots are inoculated onto susceptible cell monolayers. After an incubation period, to allow virus to attach to cells, the monolayers are covered with a nutrient medium containing a substance, usually agar, that causes the formation of a gel.
The titer of a virus stock can be calculated in plaque-forming units (PFU) per milliliter. Dulbecco, R., & Vogt, M. (1953). Tagged as: agar, pfu, plaque assay, renato dulbecco, viral, virology, virus.