Luminescent quantum dots (QDs)--semiconductor nanocrystals--are a promising alternative to organic dyes for fluorescence-based applications. We have developed procedures for using QDs to label live cells and have demonstrated their use for long-term multicolor imaging of live cells. The two approaches presented are (i) endocytic uptake of QDs and (ii) selective labeling of cell surface proteins with QDs conjugated to antibodies. Live cells labeled using these approaches were used for long-term multicolor imaging. The cells remained stably labeled for over a week as they grew and developed. These approaches should permit the simultaneous study of multiple cells over long periods of time as they proceed through growth and development.

We describe a simple and versatile scheme to prepare an array of heterofunctional multidentate ligands that permit strong and stable interactions with colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots, QDs) and render them soluble in aqueous environments. These ligands were synthesized by reacting various chain length poly(ethylene glycols) with thioctic acid, followed by ring opening of the dithiolane moiety, creating a bidentate thiol motif with enhanced affinity for CdSe-ZnS core-shell QDs. Functionalization with these ligands permits processability of the nanocrystals not only in aqueous but also in many other polar solvents. These ligands provide a straightforward means of preparing QDs that exhibit greater resistance to environmental changes, making them more amenable for use in live cell imaging and other biotechnological applications.

Metastasis is an impediment to the development of effective cancer therapies. Our understanding of metastasis is limited by our inability to follow this process in vivo. Fluorescence microscopy offers the potential to follow cells at high resolution in living animals. Semiconductor nanocrystals, quantum dots (QDs), offer considerable advantages over organic fluorophores for this purpose. We used QDs and emission spectrum scanning multiphoton microscopy to develop a means to study extravasation in vivo. Although QD labeling shows no deleterious effects on cultured cells, concern over their potential toxicity in vivo has caused resistance toward their application to such studies. To test if effects of QD labeling emerge in vivo, tumor cells labeled with QDs were intravenously injected into mice and followed as they extravasated into lung tissue. The behavior of QD-labeled tumor cells in vivo was indistinguishable from that of unlabeled cells. QDs and spectral imaging allowed the simultaneous identification of five different populations of cells using multiphoton laser excitation. Besides establishing the safety of QDs for in vivo studies, our approach permits the study of multicellular interactions in vivo.

Observations of individual virions in live cells have led to the characterization of their attachment, entry and intracellular transport 1 . However, the assembly of individual virions has never been observed in real-time. Insights into this process have come primarily from biochemical analyses of populations of virions or from microscopic studies of fixed infected cells. Thus, some assembly properties, such as kinetics and location, are either unknown or controversial 2-5 . Here, we quantitatively describe the genesis of individual virions in real-time, from initiation of assembly to budding and release. We studied fluorescently tagged derivatives of Gag, the major structural component of HIV-1 which is sufficient to drive assembly of viral-like-particles (VLPs) 6 , using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and total internal reflection fluorescent microscopy (TIR-FM) in living cells. Virions appeared individually at the plasma membrane, their assembly rate accelerated as Gag protein accumulated in cells and typically five to six minutes was required to complete the assembly of a single virion. These approaches allow a previously unobserved view of the genesis of individual virions and the determination of parameters of viral assembly that are inaccessible using conventional techniques.We monitored HeLa cells coexpressing untagged Gag and Gag fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP). This avoids the reported morphologic defect seen when Gag-GFP is expressed alone 7 and electron microscopic studies confirmed that VLPs containing Gag and Gag-GFP were morphologically indistinguishable from VLPs containing Gag only (data not shown). Gag was detected as a diffuse signal at 5-6 hours after transfection and discrete puncta that apparently localized at the plasma membrane began to appear at 6-7 after transfection ( Supplementary Fig. 1a) 4 . However, the signal from puncta at the plasma membrane was partially masked by the strong diffuse fluorescence emitted by cytoplasmic Gag-GFP ( Supplementary Fig. 1b). This diffuse fluorescence diminished relative to the intensity of the fluorescent puncta when imaged with TIR-FM, whose illumination decays exponentially from the coverslip/medium interface with a space constant of ~70 nm 8 , (Supplementary Fig. 1b). Thus, TIR-FM is well suited to monitor appearance of VLPs at the plasma membrane.Cells that had generated few (less than 20) Gag puncta at 5 to 6 after transfection were observed over the ensuing 30 to 60 min ( Supplementary Fig. 1c). Typically, 50 to 150 puncta per cell appeared during this period (movie 1). Their behavior fell into two discrete classes. One class appeared over several minutes (Fig. 1a top, b left and movie 2) and showed little lateral movement during and after emergence (average lateral velocity = 0.007 µm/sec, n=25,

Recently proposed models that have gained wide acceptance posit that HIV-1 virion morphogenesis is initiated by targeting the major structural protein (Gag) to late endosomal membranes. Thereafter, late endosome-based secretory pathways are thought to deliver Gag or assembled virions to the plasma membrane (PM) and extracellular milieu. We present several findings that are inconsistent with this model. Specifically, we demonstrate that HIV-1 Gag is delivered to the PM, and virions are efficiently released into the extracellular medium, when late endosome motility is abolished. Furthermore, we show that HIV-1 virions are efficiently released when assembly is rationally targeted to the PM, but not when targeted to late endosomes. Recently synthesized Gag first accumulates and assembles at the PM, but a proportion is subsequently internalized via endocytosis or phagocytosis, thus accounting for observations of endosomal localization. We conclude that HIV-1 assembly is initiated and completed at the PM, and not at endosomal membranes.

Similar to its role in secretory cells, calcium triggers exocytosis in nonsecretory cells. This calcium-dependent exocytosis is essential for repair of membrane ruptures. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we observed that many organelles implicated in this process, including ER, post-Golgi vesicles, late endosomes, early endosomes, and lysosomes, were within 100 nm of the plasma membrane (in the evanescent field). However, an increase in cytosolic calcium led to exocytosis of only the lysosomes. The lysosomes that fused were predominantly predocked at the plasma membrane, indicating that calcium is primarily responsible for fusion and not recruitment of lysosomes to the cell surface.

No abstract

The incorporation of viral genomes into particles has never previously been imaged in live infected cells. Thus, for many viruses it is unknown how the recruitment and packaging of genomes into virions is temporally and spatially related to particle assembly. Here, we devised approaches to simultaneously image HIV-1 genomes, as well as the major HIV-1 structural protein, Gag, to reveal their dynamics and functional interactions during the assembly of individual viral particles. In the absence of Gag, HIV-1 RNA was highly dynamic, moving in and out of the proximity of the plasma membrane. Conversely, in the presence of Gag, RNA molecules docked at the membrane where their lateral movement slowed and then ceased as Gag assembled around them and they became irreversibly anchored. Viral genomes were not retained at the membrane when their packaging signals were mutated, nor when expressed with a Gag mutant that was not myristoylated. In the presence of a Gag mutant that retained membrane-and RNAbinding activities but could not assemble into particles, the viral RNA docked at the membrane but continued to drift laterally and then often dissociated from the membrane. These results, which provide visualization of the recruitment and packaging of genomes into individual virus particles, demonstrate that a small number of Gag molecules recruit viral genomes to the plasma membrane where they nucleate the assembly of complete virions.