Bioorthogonal Labelling of African Swine Fever Virus-Infected Cells

Bioorthogonal labelling of living cells enables the incorporation of small, chemically inert units (alkynes or azides) into nascent chains of biomolecules allowing the tracking of DNA synthesis, transcription, and translation in a temporal-spatial manner without compromising their integrity. This chemical labelling method can be used to replace traditional radiolabelled nucleosides, ribonucleosides, or amino acids with the added benefit of enabling visualization using confocal or super-resolution microscopy. Here, we outline our recently published methods for labelling nascent DNA and polypeptides in cells infected with African swine fever virus.