Fig. 4: Complete and partial elimination of infectious non-enveloped viruses for water filtered through BLG AF–Fe membranes.

a, Complete elimination of infectious MS2 viruses (the corresponding reduction in the genome count is shown in Supplementary Fig. 10) when filtered through BLG AF–Fe membranes (blue, before filtration; grey, after filtration). No detectable elimination was observed when filtering the same viruses through the cellulose support or the BLG AFs alone. The plotted infectivity represents the plaque count from one plate of a series of dilutions that consist of at least three plates. A replicate of MS2 with an ~10⁹ PFU ml⁻¹ filtration through the BLG AF–Fe membrane showed a reduction of more than three orders of magnitude (data not shown). b, Genome count and infectivity of the total amount of MS2 viruses filtered and recovered: total genome count filtered = volume of filtered solution (ml) × genome count before filtration (RNA copies ml⁻¹); total infectious viruses filtered = volume of filtered solution (ml) × infectivity before filtration (PFU ml⁻¹); total genome count recovered = volume of filtered solution (ml) × genome count after filtration (RNA copies ml⁻¹) + volume of beef buffer (ml) × genome count in beef buffer after 1 h of incubation (RNA copies ml⁻¹); total infectious viruses recovered = volume of filtered solution (ml) × infectivity after filtration (PFU ml⁻¹) + volume of beef buffer (ml) × infectivity in beef buffer after 1 h of incubation (PFU ml⁻¹). Beef buffer (pH 9.3) was used to desorb the viruses from the BLG AF–Fe. The genome count for MS2 represents the average of four technical replicas. c, Substantial elimination of infectious enterovirus (EV71) viruses when filtered through BLG AF–Fe membranes. No detectable elimination was observed when the same viruses were filtered through the cellulose support or the BLG AFs alone. The results for EV71 represent the average of two technical replicas and the error bars represent the range. *Below the LOD. Representations of virions are reproduced from pictures on ViralZone⁵¹.

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