Real time analysis of viral infection: contribution of the zebrafish model to visualization and characterization of...

Real time analysis of viral infection is now feasible with the emergence of viral mutants encoding reporter genes (such as fluorescent proteins or Luciferase). The development of reverse genetic approaches in the virology field has contributed significantly to improve our knowledge on viral dissemination in mammals using intravital imaging technologies. In this context, zebra fish recently appeared as a promizing tool to study infectiology and viruses responsible for human diseases such as Herpes, Flu, hepatitis and chikungunya infections. This small vertebrate is optically transparent during the early stages of development, and has been particularly useful to study the tropism of fluorescent viruses, spreading mechanisms as well as viral persistence at cellular resolution. The size of this small organism is compatible with imaging of the whole larva using a dissecting microscope. Genome editing technology has contributed important tools that are now being exploited for the characterization of the host pathogen interaction in vivo, mainly focused on the conserved features of antiviral innate immunity.