Post-fusion HIV-1 cores traffic to the nuclear membrane and enter the nucleus through the nuclear pore complex. We visualized the nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) in cells using a super-resolution STORM technique and assessed NPC’s responses to mechanical stimuli and ATP depletion (Torres-Rivera et al., 2026) (Figure 2A, B). Our laboratory has implemented an amber codon suppression approach to directly label the HIV-1 capsid protein and visualize the viral core transport into the nucleus and uncoating. We are currently employing 2-color STORM to image HIV-1 core docking at the NPC (Figure 2C) and nuclear import.
