Photoinactivation of sindbis virus infectivity without inhibition of membrane fusion.

Photoinactivation of enveloped viruses is commonly associated with damage to fusion proteins and inhibition of membrane fusion capacity. Here we show that photobleaching of Sindbis virus labeled with the membrane localized dye, R18 (octadecyl rhodamine B) causes a dramatic loss of infectivity without observable changes in low-pH triggered membrane fusion to liposomes. Sindbis labeled with DiI (1,1'-dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate) also maintains low-pH triggered membrane fusion capacity, but in contrast to R18, extensive photobleaching of DiI-labeled virus has little effect on infectivity. Electrophoretic gel analysis suggests no cross-linking of viral fusion proteins following photobleaching of dye-labeled Sindbis. These observations have implications for live-cell, single particle tracking studies of dye-labeled Sindbis virus. Our observations suggest that R18 and DiI have different propensities for spontaneous flip-flop in lipid bilayers.