Fig. 1. SARS-CoV-2 infection causes DNA damage and altered DDR activation.
a, Immunoblotting of whole cell lysates of Huh7 cells infected, or not, with SARS-CoV-2 analysed at different timepoints post-infection for markers of DDR activation. Lysates from Huh7 cells not treated (NT) or treated with 6 mM HU or exposed to 2 Gy IR and collected at different timepoints were used as positive controls. Viral infection was monitored by probing for SARS-CoV-2 N-protein. Where present, dashed lines indicate where the blot was cropped. b, Quantification of activated protein levels shown in a. Values are normalized to mock-infected samples. c, Representative immunofluorescence (IF) images of SARS-CoV-2-infected (V+) or mock-infected (V−) Huh7 cells fixed at 48 h post-infection and stained for DDR markers. SARS-CoV-2 N-protein was used to label infected cells. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Scale bar, 10 μm. d, Quantification of DDR activation shown in c. Each dot is a nucleus. e, Images of comet assays of infected or mock-infected Huh7 cells. Scale bar, 100 μm. f, Quantification of comet tail moment shown in e. Horizontal bars represent the median values ± 95% confidence interval (CI) of three independent infections. Source numerical data and unprocessed blots are available in source data.