Roingeard Philippe
INSERM ERI 19 and Electron Microscopy Facility, Université François Rabelais and CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
Biol Cell. 2008 Aug;100(8):491-501. doi: 10.1042/BC20070173.
Viruses are very small and most of them can be seen only by TEM (transmission electron microscopy). TEM has therefore made a major contribution to virology, including the discovery of many viruses, the diagnosis of various viral infections and fundamental investigations of virus-host cell interactions. However, TEM has gradually been replaced by more sensitive methods, such as the PCR. In research, new imaging techniques for fluorescence light microscopy have supplanted TEM, making it possible to study live cells and dynamic interactions between viruses and the cellular machinery. Nevertheless, TEM remains essential for certain aspects of virology. It is very useful for the initial identification of unknown viral agents in particular outbreaks, and is recommended by regulatory agencies for investigation of the viral safety of biological products and/or the cells used to produce them. In research, only TEM has a resolution sufficiently high for discrimination between aggregated viral proteins and structured viral particles. Recent examples of different viral assembly models illustrate the value of TEM for improving our understanding of virus-cell interactions.
病毒非常小，其中大多数只能通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）才能看到。因此，透射电子显微镜对病毒学做出了重大贡献，包括许多病毒的发现、各种病毒感染的诊断以及病毒与宿主细胞相互作用的基础研究。然而，透射电子显微镜已逐渐被更灵敏的方法所取代，如聚合酶链反应（PCR）。在研究中，用于荧光显微镜的新成像技术已取代了透射电子显微镜，使得研究活细胞以及病毒与细胞机制之间的动态相互作用成为可能。尽管如此，透射电子显微镜在病毒学的某些方面仍然至关重要。它对于在特定疫情中初步鉴定未知病毒病原体非常有用，并且监管机构推荐其用于调查生物制品和/或用于生产它们的细胞的病毒安全性。在研究中，只有透射电子显微镜具有足够高的分辨率，能够区分聚集的病毒蛋白和有结构的病毒颗粒。不同病毒组装模型的最新实例说明了透射电子显微镜对于增进我们对病毒 - 细胞相互作用理解的价值。
