Rotavirus on the Move

What am I looking at?

This is a time-lapse video of epithelial cells; you can see a fluorescent calcium indicator (green) and the rotavirus infection in the cells (purple). The green flashes indicate an increase in calcium levels, which is the result of communication between cells and is important for cell health and function. The purple coloring indicates cells that are infected with rotavirus. As the video progresses, you can see an increase in calcium signaling and an increase in the number of purple cells as the virus infects more of them.

Click on the right arrow to watch a video showing a wider view of the same phenomenon.

Biology in the background

Rotavirus is a virus that infects the digestive tract and causes diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. Infection occurs when contaminated materials enter the mouth or nose. This infection is common in children, who tend to touch their mouths or noses without washing their hands.

Epithelial cells (the cells that rotavirus infects) use calcium as one of the messaging molecules within each cell. In this video, you can see that the more cells the rotavirus infects (evident as more purple cells), the more calcium signaling occurs in the neighboring cells (evident as more green flashes). Scientists believe this may mean that somehow the viral infection increases communication between cells (resulting in increased cell calcium signaling), which could help the virus spread faster from cell to cell.

In mice, these epithelial cells can grow up to about 13 micrometers long, or roughly six times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

These videos were created using fluorescence microscopy.