“…A rarely used technique for analyzing RNA viruses involves padlock probes (PLPs), which were initially designed to detect DNA sequences and later developed for labeling RNA sequences in cells and tissue (Andersson et al, 2012;Gyarmati et al, 2008;Ke et al, 2013;Larsson et al, 2010;Lizardi et al, 1998;Nilsson et al, 1994). PLPs function in a variety of biological samples, have high specificity and a short nucleotide recognition requirement, and can generate a localized amplified signal alone or in multiplex reactions (Bané r et al, 1998;Hardenbol et al, 2003;McGinn et al, 2016;Nilsson et al, 1997;Zieba et al, 2012). In this study, we used the versatility of PLPs to develop an in situ RNA labeling method for analyzing IAV infections.…”