title: Labeling viral envelope lipids with quantum dots by harnessing the biotinylated lipid-self-inserted cellular membrane.
abstract: Highly efficient labeling of viruses with quantum dots (QDs) is the prerequisite for the long-term tracking of virus invasion at the single virus level to reveal mechanisms of virus infection. As one of the structural components of viruses, viral envelope lipids are hard to be labeled with QDs due to the lack of efficient methods to modify viral envelope lipids. Moreover, it is still a challenge to maintain the intactness and infectivity of labeled viruses. Herein, a mild method has been developed to label viral envelope lipids with QDs by harnessing the biotinylated lipid-self-inserted cellular membrane. Biotinylated lipids can spontaneously insert in cellular membranes of host cells during culture and then be naturally assembled on progeny Pseudorabies virus (PrV) via propagation. The biotinylated PrV can be labeled with streptavidin-conjugated QDs, with a labeling efficiency of ∼90%. Such a strategy to label lipids with QDs can retain the intactness and infectivity of labeled viruses to the largest extent, facilitating the study of mechanisms of virus infection at the single virus level.
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lv
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: An-An
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Liu
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zheng-Yuan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Hong
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenfeng
authors.initials: Z
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ling
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hanzhong
authors.initials: H
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, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: dwpang@whu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dai-Wen
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D019921:Biotinylation / Q000379:methods; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry*; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D014780:Viruses / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids; C050629:viral envelope lipids
keywords: Envelope; Label; Lipid; Pseudorabies virus; Quantum dot