Use of cell morphology as an early bio-sensor for viral infection

This paper reports a correlation between cellular morphology and the ability of adapting Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) infection. A time-lapse approach was employed to track the individual difference between homologous cells in adopting viral infection. Our single-cell analysis indicates that upon viral infection, mature cells that are in spindle shape are less likely to be infected after 24 hour infection. On the other hand, cells undergoing proliferation, which are in rounder shape, tend to adopt much higher viral infection within the same amount of time. This fact suggests cellular morphology may to be an early bio-sensor for viral infection. The findings in this paper could potentially be applied to other viral infection models.