Uncovering the mechanisms of virus infection and assembly is crucial for preventing the spread of viruses and treating viral disease. The technique of single-virus tracking (SVT), also known as single-virus tracing, allows one to follow individual viruses at different parts of their life cycle and thereby provides dynamic insights into fundamental processes of viruses occurring in live cells. SVT is typically based on fluorescence imaging and reveals insights into previously unreported infection mechanisms. In this review article, we provide the readers a broad overview of the SVT technique. We first summarize recent advances in SVT, from the choice of fluorescent labels and labeling strategies to imaging implementation and analytical methodologies. We then describe representative applications in detail to elucidate how SVT serves as a valuable tool in virological research. Finally, we present our perspectives regarding the future possibilities and challenges of SVT.

Single-virus tracking (SVT) technique, which uses microscopy to monitor the behaviors of viruses, is a vital tool to study the real-time and in situ infection dynamics and virus-related interactions in live cells. To make SVT a more versatile tool in biological research, the researchers have developed a quantum dot (QD)-based SVT technique, which can be utilized for long-term and highly sensitive tracking in live cells. In this review, we describe the development of a QD-based SVT technique and its biological applications. We first discuss the advantage of QDs as tags in the SVT field by comparing the conventional tags, and then focus on the implementation of QD-based SVT experiments, including the QD labeling strategy, instrumentation, and image analysis method. Next, we elaborate the recent advances of QD-based SVT in the biological field, and mainly emphasize the representative examples to show how to use this technique to acquire more meaningful biological information.