An alkyne-tagged isoprenoid analogue has been used to study prenylation in bacterial and viral infection, applying a metabolic labeling strategy to identify prenylation of Legionella pneumophila effector proteins by the host prenylation machinery during intracellular infection [42], and revealing the role of prenylation of the long isoform of Zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) in the antiviral activity of this protein [54••]. Here, ZC3HAV1 is linked to viral infectious disease.