title: Labeling the nucleocapsid of enveloped baculovirus with quantum dots for single-virus tracking.
abstract: Utilization of quantum dots (QDs) for single-virus tracking is highly important for understanding virus infection mechanism. However, QD labeling site of real enveloped viruses has been confined to the external envelope so far, causing the impossibility to monitor the late infection events after the loss of envelope. Herein, a strategy to label the internal nucleocapsid of enveloped virus with QDs was proposed. The nucleocapsid of enveloped baculovirus was self-biotinylated during virus replication process in host cells and subsequently labeled with streptavidin-conjugated QDs (SA-QDs). Such host cell-assisted QD labeling was proved to be reliable, specific, efficient and capable of maintaining virus infectivity. Based on such labeling, critical infection events before and after the envelope loss were monitored in real time, including single virus interacting with late endosomes and the subsequent nucleocapsid transporting into cell nucleus. Thus our established QD labeling of enveloped virus nucleocapsid with QDs enables the comprehensive single-virus tracking for deeply understanding virus infection mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ling
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Li-Juan
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
authors.forename: Li-Ying
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
authors.forename: Han-Zhong
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China. Electronic address: dwpang@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dai-Wen
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology; D015153:Blotting, Western; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000378:metabolism*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014774:Virulence; D014779:Virus Replication
keywords: Baculovirus; Biotinylation; Labeling; Nucleocapsid; Quantum dots; Single-virus tracking