Cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 were fixed and permeabilised in 8% formaldehyde/1% Triton X-100 at designated time points postinfection.
DAPI (Thermo Fisher Scientific, cat# P36395) was included in the mounting medium, and slides were stained with primary sheep anti-coronavirus antibodies (1:500) and a rabbit anti-sheep secondary antibody (Abcam cat# ab150182) at a 1:1000 dilution before imaging (Zeiss
LSM 880 confocal microscope). Alternatively, fixed and permeabilised cells were labelled using a mouse anti-N (nucleocapsid) IgG antibody (SinoBiologicals; cat# 40143-MM08), which was detected using an
AlexaFluor 488-conjugated goat anti-mouse secondary antibody (Life Technologies; cat# A28175). Cells were subsequently counterstained with
DAPI (1 μg/ml) and mounted using
ProLong Gold antifade (Life Technologies; cat# P36930). Sequential channels were acquired as z-stacks (1.2 μm step) using an Olympus FV3000 confocal microscope and processed using Imaris software (v 9.0.2; Bitplane).
For the enumeration of infected foci, the sheep anti-SARS-CoV-2 N antibody was used (at a 1:500 dilution) and visualised using donkey anti-sheep antibody (A11015, Thermo Fisher Scientific, 1:1000 dilution) prior to scanning (
Celigo, Nexcelom).
Rihn S.J., Merits A., Bakshi S., Turnbull M.L., Wickenhagen A., Alexander A.J., Baillie C., Brennan B., Brown F., Brunker K., Bryden S.R., Burness K.A., Carmichael S., Cole S.J., Cowton V.M., Davies P., Davis C., De Lorenzo G., Donald C.L., Dorward M., Dunlop J.I., Elliott M., Fares M., da Silva Filipe A., Freitas J.R., Furnon W., Gestuveo R.J., Geyer A., Giesel D., Goldfarb D.M., Goodman N., Gunson R., Hastie C.J., Herder V., Hughes J., Johnson C., Johnson N., Kohl A., Kerr K., Leech H., Lello L.S., Li K., Lieber G., Liu X., Lingala R., Loney C., Mair D., McElwee M.J., McFarlane S., Nichols J., Nomikou K., Orr A., Orton R.J., Palmarini M., Parr Y.A., Pinto R.M., Raggett S., Reid E., Robertson D.L., Royle J., Cameron-Ruiz N., Shepherd J.G., Smollett K., Stewart D.G., Stewart M., Sugrue E., Szemiel A.M., Taggart A., Thomson E.C., Tong L., Torrie L.S., Toth R., Varjak M., Wang S., Wilkinson S.G., Wyatt P.G., Zusinaite E., Alessi D.R., Patel A.H., Zaid A., Wilson S.J, & Mahalingam S. (2021). A plasmid DNA-launched SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics system and coronavirus toolkit for COVID-19 research. PLoS Biology, 19(2), e3001091.