Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Purification and Visualization of Influenza A Viral Ribonucleoprotein Complexes
09:35

Purification and Visualization of Influenza A Viral Ribonucleoprotein Complexes

Published on: February 9, 2009

[Lipid raft and influenza virus--viral glycoproteins on a raft]

Makoto Takeda1

  • 1Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. mtakeda@virology.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Uirusu
|September 29, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Influenza virus utilizes lipid rafts for replication, concentrating hemagglutinin (HA) proteins for efficient budding. Disrupting this raft association significantly reduces viral infectivity.

Area of Science:

  • Membrane biology
  • Virology
  • Biochemistry

Context:

  • Plasma membranes exhibit lateral organization with lipid rafts.
  • Lipid rafts are enriched in sphingolipids and cholesterol.
  • Specific membrane proteins, including viral glycoproteins, associate with lipid rafts.

Purpose:

  • To investigate the role of lipid rafts in the influenza virus replication cycle.
  • To determine the association of influenza hemagglutinin (HA) with lipid rafts.
  • To assess the impact of raft association on viral infectivity.

Summary:

  • Influenza virus glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase, intrinsically associate with lipid rafts.
  • HA protein clusters at the plasma membrane by interacting with rafts, concentrating it in small areas.
  • A mutant influenza virus lacking HA raft association showed reduced HA levels, decreased fusion activity, and significantly lower infectivity.

Impact:

  • Lipid rafts are crucial for efficient influenza virus production.
  • Rafts may act as concentrating devices for viral proteins.
  • Rafts facilitate the transport of HA to the site of virus budding, enhancing infectivity.

More Related Videos

In Vitro Disassembly of Influenza A Virus Capsids by Gradient Centrifugation07:24

In Vitro Disassembly of Influenza A Virus Capsids by Gradient Centrifugation

Published on: March 27, 2016

Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance13:00

Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance

Published on: June 14, 2022

Related Concept Videos

Membrane Fluidity01:26

Membrane Fluidity

Membrane fluidity is explained by the fluid mosaic model of the cell membrane, which describes the plasma membrane structure as a mosaic of components—including phospholipids, cholesterol, proteins, and carbohydrates—that gives the membrane a fluid character.
Mosaic nature of the membrane
The mosaic characteristic of the membrane helps the plasma membrane remain fluid. The integral proteins and lipids exist as separate but loosely-attached molecules in the membrane. The membrane is a relatively...
Membrane Fluidity01:23

Membrane Fluidity

Cell membranes are composed of phospholipids, proteins, and carbohydrates loosely attached to one another through chemical interactions. Molecules are generally able to move about in the plane of the membrane, giving the membrane its flexible nature called fluidity. Two other features of the membrane contribute to membrane fluidity: the chemical structure of the phospholipids and the presence of cholesterol in the membrane.Fatty acids tails of phospholipids can be either saturated or...
Influenza01:27

Influenza

Influenza is an acute, highly communicable viral disease that affects the respiratory tract and is responsible for seasonal epidemics worldwide. Influenza A is the most prevalent type associated with widespread outbreaks and is subtyped based on two surface glycoproteins: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), as in H1N1. These glycoproteins are essential for viral infectivity, transmission, and immune recognition. Transmission occurs primarily through respiratory droplets and contaminated...
Inhibitors Of Virion Release01:25

Inhibitors Of Virion Release

Viral replication and dissemination rely on efficient mechanisms for host cell entry, genome replication, assembly, and release. Influenza viruses, such as types A and B, are negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses with a segmented genome, that depend on two critical surface glycoproteins to carry out these processes: hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). HA initiates infection by binding to sialic acid residues on the surface of host epithelial cells, facilitating receptor-mediated...
Leaky Scanning02:28

Leaky Scanning

During most eukaryotic translation processes, the small 40S ribosome subunit scans an mRNA from its 5' end until it encounters the first start AUG codon. The large 60S ribosomal subunit then joins the smaller one to initiate protein synthesis. The location of the translation initiation is largely determined by the nucleotides near the start codon as there may be multiple translation initiation sites present on the mRNA.  Marilyn Kozak discovered that the sequence RCCAUGG (where R stands for...
Fluid Mosaic Model01:19

Fluid Mosaic Model

Scientists identified the plasma membrane in the 1890s and its principal chemical components (lipids and proteins) by 1915. The model for plasma membrane structure, proposed in 1935 by Hugh Davson and James Danielli, was the first model to be widely accepted in the scientific community. The model was based on the plasma membrane's "railroad track" appearance in early electron micrographs. Davson and Danielli theorized that the plasma membrane's structure resembled a sandwich with the analogy of...