Figure 4.

PRRSV infection induces mtDNA leaking into the cytoplasm. (A) At 24 h post-infection, Marc-145 cells were immunostained with antibodies specific to TOM20 (red), dsDNA (green). The nucleus is stained with DAPI (blue) in the merged images. The zoomed images show that large amounts of dsDNA (green) accumulate in the cytoplasm of the PRRSV infected cells. (B) Fold induction of levels of mitochondria-specific DNA sequences mtCOI and mtCytB present in the cytosol of Marc-145 cells infected with PRRSV at MOI 0.5, 1 and MOI 1.5. The statistical significance of differences was determined using the Student’s t-test (*p <0.05; **p <0.01; ***p <0.001).