Disentangling Viral Membrane Fusion from Receptor Binding Using Synthetic DNA-Lipid Conjugates.

ABSTRACT: Enveloped viruses must bind to a receptor on the host membrane to initiate infection. Membrane fusion is subsequently initiated by a conformational change in the viral fusion protein, triggered by receptor binding, an environmental change, or both. Here, we present a strategy to disentangle the two processes of receptor binding and fusion using synthetic DNA-lipid conjugates to bind enveloped viruses to target membranes in the absence of receptor. This permits direct testing of whether receptor engagement affects the fusion mechanism as well as a comparison of fusion behavior across viruses with different receptor binding specificities. We demonstrate this approach by binding X-31 influenza virus to target vesicles and measuring the rates of individual pH-triggered lipid mixing events usin

SUBMITTER: Rawle RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4945621 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature