Low pH triggered cell-cell fusion. BS-C-1 monolayers were infected with 5 PFU per cell of vL1Ri in the presence (+) or absence (−) of IPTG. At 18 h, the cells were treated for 3 min with pH 5.3 or pH 7.4 buffer before replacement with normal medium. After 3 h, the cells were fixed, permeabilized, stained with DAPI, and visualized by phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy.