MFN2 and infection: Mfn2 knockdown resulted in decreased MTT absorbance to 78±3.17%, 73.1±5.78%, 67.6±1.2%, and 63.8±9.56% of that in scramble RNA cells at day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4 after infection, respectively, and this blunted cell growth by Mfn2 knockdown was totally restored by co-expression of Mfn2 cDNA with Mfn2 shRNA (Fig. 1E), to a protein level comparable of that in scramble control cells (data not shown).