BACKGROUND Viruses are the most numerous entities on Earth and have also been central to many episodes in the history of humankind. As the study of viruses progresses further and further, there are several limitations in transferring this knowledge to undergraduate and high school students. This deficiency is due to the difficulty in designing hands-on lessons that allow students to better absorb content, given limited financial resources and facilities, as well as the difficulty of exploiting viral particles, due to their small dimensions. The development of tools for teaching virology is important to encourage educators to expand on the covered topics and connect them to recent findings. Discoveries, such as giant DNA viruses, have provided an opportunity to explore aspects of viral particles in ways never seen before. Coupling these novel findings with techniques already explored by classical virology, including visualization of cytopathic effects on permissive cells, may represent a new way for teaching virology. This work aimed to develop a slide microscope kit that explores giant virus particles and some aspects of animal virus interaction with cell lines, with the goal of providing an innovative approach to virology teaching. METHODS Slides were produced by staining, with crystal violet, purified giant viruses and BSC-40 and Vero cells infected with viruses of the genera Orthopoxvirus, Flavivirus, and Alphavirus. Slides with amoebae infected with different species of giant viruses and stained with hemacolor reagents were also produced. RESULTS Staining of the giant viruses allowed better visualization of the viral particles, and this technique highlights the diversity in morphology and sizes among them. Hemacolor staining enabled visualization of viral factories in amoebae, and the staining of infected BSC-40 and Vero cell monolayers with crystal violet highlights plaque-forming units. CONCLUSIONS This kit was used in practical virology classes for the Biological Sciences course (UFMG, Brazil), and it will soon be made available at a low-cost for elementary school teachers in institutions that have microscopes. We hope this tool will foster an inspiring learning environment.

中文翻译：

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病毒传播：病毒学课程的教育套件。


背景技术病毒是地球上数量最多的实体，并且也是人类历史上许多事件的中心。随着病毒研究的不断深入，将这些知识传授给本科生和高中生存在一些局限性。造成这一缺陷的原因是，由于财政资源和设施有限，难以设计让学生更好地吸收内容的实践课程，而且由于病毒颗粒尺寸较小，因此难以利用。病毒学教学工具的开发对于鼓励教育工作者扩展所涵盖的主题并将其与最新发现联系起来非常重要。巨型 DNA 病毒等发现提供了以前所未有的方式探索病毒颗粒各个方面的机会。将这些新发现与经典病毒学已经探索的技术（包括对允许细胞的细胞病变效应的可视化）相结合，可能代表了一种病毒学教学的新方法。这项工作旨在开发一种载玻片显微镜套件，用于探索巨型病毒颗粒以及动物病毒与细胞系相互作用的某些方面，目的是为病毒学教学提供一种创新方法。方法通过用结晶紫、纯化的巨型病毒和感染了正痘病毒属、黄病毒属和甲病毒属病毒的BSC-40和Vero细胞染色来制备载玻片。还制作了感染不同种类巨型病毒并用血色试剂染色的变形虫的载玻片。结果巨型病毒的染色可以更好地观察病毒颗粒，并且该技术突出了它们之间形态和大小的多样性。 Hemacolor 染色可实现阿米巴原虫中病毒工厂的可视化，并且用结晶紫对受感染的 BSC-40 和 Vero 细胞单层进行染色可突出显示噬菌斑形成单位。结论 该试剂盒已用于生物科学课程（UFMG，巴西）的实用病毒学课程，并且很快将以低成本提供给拥有显微镜的机构的小学教师。我们希望这个工具能够营造一个鼓舞人心的学习环境。