FIG. 1.
Infection and fusion by SFV and SIN are naturally cholesterol dependent. (A) Infection. Control (black bars) and cholesterol-depleted (hatched bars) C6/36 mosquito cells were infected with serial dilutions of wt SFV, the srf-3 mutant, VSV, or field isolates of SIN and SFV (SFVA and SFVB). Primary virus infection was quantitated by immunofluorescence and normalized to 105 infectious centers/ml on control cells. (B) Fusion. Serial dilutions of viruses (indicated as for panel A) were bound to control (black bars) and cholesterol-depleted (hatched bars) C6/36 cells on ice, and fusion was induced by treatment at pH 5.7 for 1 min at 28°C. The resultant infection was quantitated as for panel A and normalized to 107 infectious centers/ml on control cells. Panels A and B represent the average of two to three independent experiments.