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. 1990 Mar;87(5):1850–1854. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.5.1850

Observation of single influenza virus-cell fusion and measurement by fluorescence video microscopy.

R J Lowy 1, D P Sarkar 1, Y Chen 1, R Blumenthal 1
PMCID: PMC53581  PMID: 2308945

Abstract

We have used intensified video fluorescence microscopy and digital image processing to observe and quantitate influenza virus (A/PR8/34/H1N1) fusion to human erythrocyte membranes. Viruses labeled with the lipid probe octadecylrhodamine B (R18) were seen to undergo fluorescence dequenching and eventual disappearance after exposure to pH levels known to induce virus-cell membrane fusion. Quantitative intensity measurements of single individual particles were possible. From these fluorescence data it has been possible to calculate the fraction of R18 dye molecules transferred from the virus to the cell. The redistribution of the lipid probe upon fusion at pH 5.0 had a t1/2 of 46 s, longer than expected for a free-diffusion model. The R18 loss was approximately twice as fast at pH 5.0 as at pH 5.1. No obvious delay until the start of fluorescence dequenching was observed after the pH changes, suggesting that activation processes are faster than the time resolution, 1-5 s, of the current method.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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