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Carbohydrates on the cell surface control intercellular interactions and play a vital role in various physiological processes. However, their systemic distribution patterns are poorly understood. Through the direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) strategy, we systematically revealed that several types of representative carbohydrates are found in clustered states. Interestingly, the results from dual-color dSTORM imaging indicate that these carbohydrate clusters are prone to connect with one another and eventually form conjoined platforms where different functional glycoproteins aggregate (e.g., epidermal growth factor receptor, (EGFR) and band 3 protein). A thorough understanding of the ensemble distribution of carbohydrates on the cell surface paves the way for elucidating the structure-function relationship of cell membranes and the critical roles of carbohydrates in various physiological and pathological cell processes.

Understanding the mechanism of rabies virus (RABV) infection is vital for prevention and therapy of virulent rabies. However, the infection mechanism remains largely uncharacterized due to the limited methods and viral models. Herein, we utilized a powerful single-virus tracking technique to dynamically and globally visualize the infection process of the live attenuated rabies vaccine strain-SRV9 in living Vero cells. Firstly, it was found that the actin-enriched filopodia is in favor of virus reaching to the cell body. Furthermore, by carrying out drug perturbation experiments, we confirmed that RABV internalization into Vero cells proceeds via classical dynamin-dependent clathrin-mediated endocytosis with requirement for intact actin, but caveolae-dependent endocytosis is not involved. Then, our real-time imaging results unambiguously uncover the characteristics of viral internalization and cellular transport dynamics. In addition, our results directly and quantitatively reveal that the intracellular motility of internalized RABV particles is largely microtubule-dependent. Collectively, our work is crucial for understanding the initial steps of RABV infection and elucidating the mechanisms of post-infection. Significantly, the results provide profound insight into development of novel and effective antiviral targets.

Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) can transduce cytokine signals and regulate gene expression. The cellular localization and nuclear trafficking of STAT1, a representative of the STAT family with multiple transcriptional functions, is tightly related with transcription process, which usually happens in the interphase of the cell cycle. However, these priority questions regarding STAT1 distribution and localization at the different cell-cycle stages remain unclear. By using direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM), we found that the nuclear expression level of STAT1 increased gradually as the cell cycle carried out, especially after EGF stimulation. Furthermore, STAT1 formed clusters in the whole cell during the cell cycle, with the size and the number of clusters also increasing significantly from G1 to G2 phase, suggesting that transcription and other cell-cycle related activities can promote STAT1 to form more and larger clusters for fast response to signals. Our work reveals that the cellular localization and clustering distribution of STAT1 are associated with the cell cycle and further provides an insight into the mechanism of cell-cycle regulated STAT1 signal transduction.

Widespread application of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) for information storage has so far been limited by the complicated interplay between tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio and the product of resistance and junction area (RA). An intricate connection exists between TMR ratio, $RA$ value and the bandgap and crystal structure of the barrier, a connection that must be unravelled to optimise device performance and enable further applications to be developed. Here, we demonstrate a novel method to tailor the bandgap of an ultrathin, epitaxial Zn-doped MgO tunnel barrier with rocksalt structure. This structure is attractive due to its good Δ_1 spin filtering effect, and we show that MTJs based on tunable MgZnO barriers allow effective balancing of TMR ratio and $RA$ value. In this way spin-dependent transport properties can be controlled, a key challenge for the development of spintronic devices.