Atypical cellular membrane remodeling by highly replicating strains of hepatitis C virus

A huge amount of work has been devoted to the ultrastructural characterization of the HCV "membranous web", a dedicated replication organelle generated in cells by replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major public health problem. Previous works include correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) and soft X-ray tomography on the ALBA MISTRAL beamline. Now partner 2 has discovered hyperreplicating strains of HCV and shown that their membranous web is distinctly different from the one associated with other HCV strains. The three partners (Bressanelli (I2BC, Paris-Saclay) : structural virology ; Lohmann (University of Heidelberg) : cellular virology & Jamme (synchrotron SOLEIL) : cryo-CLXM) propose to image this new membranous web at three times post establishment of replication. These results will be quantitatively compared to tomograms of mock-transfected cells and of the JFH1 phenotype (previously characterized on MISTRAL) to understand the different cellular alterations.