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. 2008 May 7;3(5):e2131. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002131

Figure 2. Viral spread visualized by eGFP expression following BAC DNA transfection.

Figure 2

A. BHK-21 cells were transfected with wild-type or gM truncation mutant BAC DNA. 72 h later, infection was monitored by fluorescence microscopy. Each virus expresses eGFP from an HCMV IE-1 promoter in addition to the eGFP tag on gM. Cells expressing virus-encoded eGFP appear black. B. Two independent gM-T1 mutants were compared with their revertants in an experiment similar to A. The images shown are from 72 h post-transfection. There was also no sign of virus replication at 6 days post-infection. C. Higher magnification images of BHK-21 cells after T1.1 and T1.2 BAC transfection showed small clusters of eGFP+ fragments. But these were smaller than BHK-21 cells (the scale bar shows 10 µm), and were presumably non-infectious debris derived from apoptotic BAC-transfected cells. There was no sign of the neighbouring BHK-21 cells becoming infected.