Figure 1: Caveolin-1/caveolae/caveolar endocytotic vesicle colocalized with TFV virions at the late phase of infection.

(A) HepG2 cells grown on coverslips were either uninfected (Con.) or infected (Inf.) by TFV at an MOI of 10. The cells were fixed with paraformaldehyde at 72 h postinfection. Caveolin-1 and TFV MCP were stained as described in the Materials and Methods. Bound IgG was detected with host-specific secondary antibodies conjugated to either Alexa Fluor 488 or 555. The yellow overlay represents colocalization of TFV MCP and caveolin-1 (white arrows). (B) HepG2 cells infected with TFV after 72 h postinfection. Cells were extracted with 1% Triton X-100 at 4 °C. The lysate was loaded at the bottom of a flotation sucrose density gradient and subjected to equilibrium centrifugation. The gradient was fractionated from the top, and polypeptides were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. (C) Extracted DNA from each fractions were amplified TFV gene orf031L and orf096R by PCR, then detected by nucleic acid electrophoresis experiment (+ indicates positive control,- indicates negative control). (D) Extracted DNA from each fractions and then detected TFV gene orf096R by absolute quantitative real-time PCR. Y-axe represent absolute quantitative values of TFV gene orf096R. Asterisks indicate values that are statistically significant (p < 0.05) compared with values for NC. (E) Caveolae were isolated on sucrose gradients at different time points from 1 to 72 h post-infection, and equal volume fractions were separated. The fractions 5 and 12 of each time points were detected with anti-TFV MCP antibody by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting.