plaque assay

A Viral Heist

HSV-1 virions capture the cellular motor protein kinesin from initially infected epithelial cells and ferry it to subsequently infected neuronal cells to deliver their genome into the nucleus of those cells.

TWiV 575: Endless giant virus forms most beautiful

From the Fourth Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Germany, Vincent, Rich, and Nels speak with Assaf, Stephen, and Alexandra about their careers and their work on giant viruses that infect ocean hosts: Emiliana huxleyi, Aureococcus anophagefferans, and a choanoflagellate.  Click arrow to play Download TWiV 575 (73 MB .mp3, 121 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email …

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The purity of plaques

The plaque assay – my favorite assay in the world – is a time-honored procedure to determine the number of viruses in a sample, and to establish clonal virus stocks. The  linear relationship between the number of infectious particles and the plaque count (illustrated; image credit) shows that one infectious particle is sufficient to initiate infection. Despite the …

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Viral RNA is not infectious virus!

A study of sexual transmission of Zika virus among mice (link to paper) demonstrates beautifully that viral nucleic acid detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is not the same as infectious virus. Male mice were infected with Zika virus and then mated with female mice. Efficient sexual transmission of the virus from males to females was observed. This …

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