Ebola and marburg viruses: I. Some ultrastructural differences between strains when grown in vero cells

Abstract

A strain of Marburg virus and two strains of Ebola virus grown in Vero cells were compared by electron microscopy. The outer coat of the Marburg virion appeared to be more resistant to erosion by negative staining techniques than that of the Epbola strains. Marburg virus commonly produced "torus" forms and short filaments; the Zaire strain of Ebola produced extensive branched forms and very long filaments; the Sudan strain of Ebola produced shorter, less branched structures but very many aberrant forms. The mechanism for the production of these aberrant forms is described.

Cryo-Electron Tomography of Marburg Virus Particles and Their Morphogenesis within Infected Cells

“…Infected HUH-7 cells (Materials and Methods) were fixed, vitrified by plunge-freezing, and examined using cryo-ET. The cells appeared to be well preserved and, apart from some small regions of the membrane that appeared moth-eaten (as previously described for filoviruses [39]), showed no adverse effects from the fixation process. In thin areas, instances of microtubules, early endosomes, clathrin coated pits, and the cortical actin network could be discerned.…”

RhoA Signaling Is Required for Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Induced Syncytium Formation and Filamentous Virion Morphology

“…Several viruses, including influenza virus and Ebola viruses, can also form long filamentous particles during infection, but it is unclear what role these filaments play in the spread of virus infection and in syncytium formation (11,13). We were able to visualize these filamentous structures in RSV-infected cells by TEM (Fig.…”

Evaluation of Perceived Threat Differences Posed by Filovirus Variants

“…2,13,14 Western researchers later switched to the Musoke variant, whereas Soviet/Russian scientists continued to work exclusively with Popp-and Voege-derived viruses. 2 The Western switch to ''Musoke'' most likely occurred because its history and origin were known, whereas the history of the 1967 variant often involved passaging to various extents in rodents without adequately keeping track of which partner institution received which particular isolate.…”