Title: Single particle studies of influenza viral membrane fusion
Description: Membrane fusion is an essential step during entry of enveloped viruses into cells. Conventional fusion assays are generally limited to observation of ensembles of multiple fusion events, confounding more detailed analysis of the sequence of the molecular steps involved. An in vitro , two-color fluorescence assay was developed to monitor kinetics of single virus particles fusing with a target bilayer on an essentially fluid support. Analysis of lipid- and content-mixing trajectories on a particle-by-particle basis provides evidence for multiple, long-lived kinetic intermediates leading to hemifusion, followed by a single, rate-limiting step to pore formation. The series of intermediates preceding hemifusion are likely a result of the requirement that multiple copies of the trimeric hemagglutinin fusion protein be activated to initiate the fusion process. The statistical methods used in analysis of single-particle kinetics are discussed in further detail. The effects of shot noise and heterogeneity are explored with simulated examples. We also find that dynamic disorder, a phenomenon previously observed from studies of single-molecule enzyme kinetics, can mask the presence of rate-limiting intermediate steps. This observation has important implications for single-molecule enzymology and places limits on the magnitude of disorder in systems where multiple steps are detected in dwell-time distributions.

Preliminary work is described of the development of a novel single-particle assay that allows study of membrane deformations prior to hemifusion. The assay will take advantage of the sensitivity of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to detect local changes in the distance between the influenza virus envelope and the target membrane in the moments after low pH activation. The small area of contact between the two membranes (<∼100 nm 2 ) requires limiting the excitation beam to a similarly small area, which is unattainable with conventional diffraction-limited optics. To overcome these limitations, we have fabricated arrays of nanometric apertures, which are capable of emitting collimated beams of light with diameters much smaller than the wavelength of light.