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Two publications from our lab, now in print (first on biorxiv):
A new assay for measuring viral genome exposure in viral entry.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2022.11.002
And then using this assay to look at the effects of endosomal lipids on influenza membrane fusion:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c06642
Two surprising take-homes from this work:
1) influenza fusion rates are uncorrelated with target membrane size (and starting curvature)
2) BMP lipids that are enriched in endosomes do affect the efficiency of influenza fusion at the pore formation stage. Previously these lipids had been identified as being important for other viruses but not influenza. Our new assay helps us uncover this dependence. Endosomal lipids are important!