Determining the Importance of Peroxisomal Proteins for Viral Infections in Cultured Mammalian Cells

Peroxisomes have recently been shown to play important roles in the context of viral infections. However, further and more detailed studies should be performed to unravel the specific mechanisms involved. The analysis of the relevance of particular peroxisomal components, such as peroxisomal proteins, for viral infections can be performed by comparing the production of new virus particles in the absence and presence of those specific components. Different methodologies are used to quantify the production of infectious virus particles, depending on the virus, cell type, and the specific characteristics of the viral infection to be analyzed. Here we provide a detailed protocol to study the importance of a putative peroxisomal protein on infection by viruses that induce the death of their host cells. We use the influenza A virus (IAV) infection in A549 cells as a model, and the quantification of the newly produced infectious virus particles is performed by a plaque assay.