Viral tracing articles from across Nature Portfolio

This protocol details quantum dot-based single-virus tracking, an imaging approach to monitoring the infection behavior of individual viruses or viral components in live cells by using semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots) as fluorescent labels.

3D-TrIm combines real-time, high-speed, single-virion tracking with volumetric imaging of cellular microenvironments.

Viral retrograde tracing identifies input regions and patterns into the corticotropin releasing factor-expressing neurons in central amygdala, providing an important resource to disentangle the role of these cells in fear and anxiety.

The authors barcoded glioma-initiating cells (GIC) using combinations of virally encoded fluorophores. GIC show a strong tendency to form clonal populations over as few as two passages. Combined with stem cell marker phenotyping and computational analysis, they could trace the fate of such populations. This model presents an approach for rapid assessment of newly established GIC to assess tumour-specific vulnerabilities.

A self-inactivating rabies virus enables long-term tracing of neural networks without toxicity.